Stars slump to 129, second worst Fifa ranking

Harambee Stars have dropped 13 places to position 129 in the Coca-Cola Fifa Rankings released on Thursday, the country’s second worst position since the international rating started.

Stars are only five places short of matching their worst performance of 134 in 2012 with the limp 1-1 draws against Tanzania and Sudan factored in the calculation of ranking points.

The news will pile more pressure to first coach Stanley Okumbi to deliver victory on Sunday against Congo Brazzaville in a 2017 AFCON qualifier with their opponents who arrived earlier Thursday ranked 60th in the world and 11th in Africa.

“I’m totally focused on the Sunday’s match for now, how my players are and their performance this weekend. I’m not concerned with matters ranking, we can talk about it may be three months from now. You know, even if I am given Brazil tomorrow I will play them,” the under-fire Okumbi told Citizen Digital.

Congo arrived from Morocco where they have been training for the past one week in preparation for the return leg of the dead-rubber 2017 AFCON qualifier for already eliminated Stars.

Uganda continues to reign in the Cecafa at 72, followed by Rwanda who are at 103 while Ethiopia caps the top three at 125. Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania and South Sudan follow in the that order in 128, 129,136 and 157 positions.

World Cup runners-up Argentina are the new team at the top of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking according to the April 2016 edition.

La Albiceleste’s recent performances in World Cup qualifying have helped them end Belgium’s five-month-long reign at the summit of football’s world ranking which began when the Red Devils snatched pole position from Argentina back in November 2015.

Chile moved into third (up two places), Colombia fourth (up four) and Uruguay jump to ninth (up two) to strengthen the South American grip on the top ten.

Algeria (32) took over from Ivory Coast (36) as the top ranked team in Africa with

A total of 171 games have been taken into account for the April edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, which includes 51 qualifiers for Russia 2018, 60 continental qualifiers and 60 international friendlies.

Costa Rica (25th, up eight), Turkey (13th, up seven) and Mexico (16th, up six) have all enjoyed impressive gains near the top for April.

A little further down the table, Australia (50th, up 17), Egypt (44th, up nine) and Norway (49th, up two) break into the top 50 at the expense of Trinidad and Tobago (53rd, down four), Serbia (55th, down five) and Finland (61st, down 15) also shot up the rankings.

The two most outstanding performers for April hailed from Africa.

Guinea-Bissau (up 45) climbed the most positions by rank, while Morocco (131 points) enjoyed the biggest move by virtue of points.

Top 10 world

1. Argentina
2. Belgium
3. Colombia
4. Germany
5. Chile
6. Spain
7. Brazil
8. Portugal
9. Uruguay
10. Austria

Top 10 Africa

1 (32) Algeria

2 (36) Côte d’Ivoire

3 (37) Ghana

4 (41) Senegal

5 (45) Egypt

6 (47) Tunisia

7 (49) Cape Verde Islands

8 (52) Congo DR

9 (55) Guinea

10 (58) Cameroon

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