THE Warriors dropped a massive nine places in the latest Fifa/Coca-Cola World football rankings released yesterday.
TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
According to the rankings, the Warriors are now on number 101 in the world and slumped to number 27 in Africa. They were previously on position 90 in the world and 24 in Africa.
The next ranking will be released on November 27, 11 days after the Warriors would have played Morocco in an international friendly match.
A total of 141 matches were taken into account for the October edition of the world ranking, exactly the same number as last month.
Of those matches, 49 were European qualifiers, 28 were African qualifiers and 10 were Concacaf qualifiers in addition to 54 friendlies. In total, 667 matches have been taken into account over the course of the year so far.
This means Zimbabwe’s friendly match against Swaziland which they won 2-0 two weeks ago was also taken into account. But that did little to prevent their slide down the ladder which is attributed to their inactivity in the 2015 African Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Zimbabwe crashed out of the continental soccer showcase after a disappointing 2-2 home draw against minnows Tanzania in the first round, second leg of the qualifiers at the National Sports Stadium in June.
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They had been edged 1-0 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, thus they bombed out 3-2 on aggregate.
The Warriors will now have to wait for the next two years to participate in the 2017 African Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Algeria maintained their number one position in Africa after moving five places up the ladder and are number 15 in the world while Ivory Coast are second in Africa and 25 in the world despite dropping three places down.
Tunisia remained static on third position and are number 31 in the world. Cape Verde moved eight places up to claim fourth place and are ranked number 33 in the world.
Former African champions Egypt moved a massive 23 places to claim sixth place in Africa and 38 in the world.
Cameroon are seventh in Africa and 40 in the world after moving two places while both Senegal and Nigeria dropped five places down to position 41 and 42 in the world and eight and nine in Africa respectively. But Togo were the biggest movers after jumping 73 places up to position 10 in Africa and 52 in the world.
Germany held on to the top spot in the world despite a difficult start to their Euro 2016 qualification campaign.
Argentina and Colombia remained static on second and third position in the world while Belgium leapfrogged the Netherlands to claim fourth position — their highest ranking yet.
Brazil remained static on sixth position while France moved two places up to number seven.
Uruguay are in eighth place after dropping one place while Portugal moved two places up to claim 9th position, their first appearance in the top ten since July.
Former table-toppers Spain dropped two places down to sit on tenth position.
