Uganda tops FIFA rankings in East and Central Africa

Sports — 30 June 2011

By Godwin Agaba

Uganda has maintained its lead in East and Central Africa football as the latest FIFA rankings released at the headquarters in Zurich,
Switzerland on Wednesday. The Cranes who beat Guinea Bissau 2-0 in a 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier to maintain their lead in the group are now ranked 77th, their best placing ever.

The team coached by Scottish Bobby Williamson moved up seven places above nations like Canada and Saudi Arabia. While Uganda moved seven places, giant football playing nations in the African continent like Ghana dropped 18 spots and Mali too.

In Africa the biggest movers on the rankings were Zimbabwe who leapt 39 places to 87th globally and 22nd on the continent. Other African sides who made big gains on the latest list are Liberia (125th, up 32), Comoros (164th, up 24), Sierra Leone (95th, up 23) and Central African Republic (91st, up 22).

Uganda are fighting tooth and nail to get back to the Africa Cup of Nations since their last appearance in 1978, and their wins over
Angola, and twice against Guinea Bissau and a draw to Kenya have seen them in pole position to qualify this time round and also improve on their rankings both in the world and in the continent.

Ghana are the highest ranked African nations at 33, while Egypt closely follow in 34th place. Sudan are the only other country in East
and Central Africa to be close to Uganda at 99th place. Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Djibouti and Ethiopia who are in the same region, are all above 100.

World Rankings: top 10

1 Spain (May’s position: 1st)
2 Holland (2nd)
3 Germany (4th)
4 England (6th)
5 Brazil (3rd)
6 Italy (9th)
7 Portugal (8th)
8 Croatia (10th)
9 Mexico (28th)
10 Argentina (5th)

Africa’s Top Ten
1. Ivory Coast (14)
2. Ghana (33)
3. Egypt (34)
4. Burkina Faso (37)
5. Nigeria (41)
6. Senegal (43)
7. South Africa (47)
8. Cameroon (48)
9. Algeria (51)
10. Tunisia (57)