Kenya drop, Germany top in latest World FIFA rankings

The national team Harambee Stars have dropped six places below their previous position according to the latest publication by FIFA.

Harambee Stars are ranked 88th, 17 places below their neighbors Uganda on the global index.

Kenya’s drop was largely contributed by the Stars’ pair of draws against Mozambique (1-1) and Mauritania (1-1) as well as a 2-0 defeat at the hands of the Moroccan Under-23 side during the last FIFA international break.

Germany have returned to the summit of the log, continuing this year’s ongoing tug-of-war with Brazil for top spot.

Germany’s 2-1 win away to the Czech Republic and their 6-0 drubbing of Norway in the World Cup qualifiers lifted them over the already-qualified Brazil, who dropped points in a draw away to Colombia.

European champions Portugal climbed three places to third – even though they are second in their World Cup qualifying group behind Switzerland.

In another surprise, Argentina are fourth in the rankings despite struggling to qualify for the World Cup after drawing their last two games – away to Uruguay and at home to Venezuela.

War-torn Syria, who have reached the Asian playoff stage in the World Cup qualifiers despite playing their ‘home’ World Cup qualifiers in Malaysia because of the security situation in the country, rose to their highest-ever ranking of 75.

Three other teams reached their best-ever place – Peru (12th), Northern Ireland (20th) and Luxemburg (101st) after they held France to a 0-0 draw away.

The rankings made disappointing reading for Asia with only three sides in the top 50 – Iran, Japan and Australia.

The next FIFA rankings will be announced on Oct. 16 and used to determine the seedings in the draw for the four European playoff ties for next year’s World Cup finals in Russia.

Top 10 rankings: (previous positions in brackets) 1. Germany (2) 2. Brazil (1) 3. Portugal (6) 4. Argentina (3) 5. Belgium (9) 6. Poland (5) 7. Switzerland (4) 8. France (10) 9. Chile (7) 10. Colombia (8)

*Previous pos. in brackets