Stars down one place as Qatar rise in FIFA Rankings

The national team Harambee Stars dropped a place down to position 106 in the latest World FIFA Rankings published the global governing body on Thursday.

All African teams inside the top 110 places recorded negative moves or remained static except Zambia who moved above Syria into position 82nd worldwide.

Qatar moved up to 55th, their best position in 26 years, after their breakthrough Asian Cup triumph in the United Arab Emirates last week.

The 2022 World Cup hosts’ remarkable run at the continental championship, where they won all seven games and conceded only one goal, allowed them to move up 38 places from 93rd in the world.

Qatar beat regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia, Iraq and South Korea on their way to the final, where they stunned four-times champions Japan 3-1.

The Qataris are still only the fifth-highest ranked team from Asian Football Confederation, behind Iran (22), Japan (27), South Korea (38) and Australia (42).

Belgium continue to lead the world rankings ahead of last year’s World Cup winners France and Brazil, with no changes to the top 20 due to the lack of fixtures involving teams from the European and South American confederations.