adminActing Sports Editor
THE Zimbabwe Warriors will be the lowest ranked team in their African Nations Championship Group B and the fourth lowest in the entire Chan tournament. According to the Fifa/Coca-Cola World Rankings released from the Fifa headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland yesterday, Zimbabwe fell further down on the African continent from 29 last month to 30 while they remained unmoved on the world stage, ending the year on 106th position.
Their 2-1 win over lowly ranked Mozambique early this month in an international friendly match at Barbourfields Stadium did little to help their cause in terms of rankings.
Zimbabwe will face Uganda, Burkina Faso and Morocco in their quest for a quarterfinal place in the bi-annual jamboree. Uganda are ranked 22nd and 86th on the African and world stage while Burkina Faso are the 10th best team in Africa and 53 on the world stage.
Fifa World Club Championships hosts, Morocco are ranked 17th in Africa and 73 in the world.
The world top 10 remains unchanged. Spain continues to lead the table ahead of Germany and Argentina, followed by Colombia, Portugal and Uruguay. Two Asian teams have this month achieved their highest-ever rankings, the Philippines (127th, up six) and Guan (161st, up eighth).
Spain top the final ranking of the year for the sixth time in a row, securing the title of Team of the Year. The highest climbers of 2013, thanks to nine wins, two draws and only one defeat, are Ukraine, who have collected no fewer than 312 points since December 2012, moving up 29 places to 18th and gaining the title of Mover of the Year for the first time.
A look at the changes in the regional composition of the top 50 since December 2012 shows that the number of teams from Concaf (five teams in the top 50, plus two) and Caf (9, plus 1) has increased slightly at the expense of Uefa (26, minus 1), Conmebol (8, minus 1) and the AFC (2, minus 1), while the OFC still does not have any teams in the top 50.
The results of 30 international matches have been taken into account for the current edition of the rankings. In total in 2013, the results of 918 matches have been taken into account, many of which were friendlies (415) and more than a third of which (347) were qualifying matches for the 2014 Fifa World Cup.
The basic logic of these calculations is simple: any team that does well in world football wins points which enable it to climb the world ranking.
Calculation of points for a single match
The number of points that can be won in a match depends on the following factors:
• Was the match won or drawn? (M)
• How important was the match (ranging from a friendly match to a Fifa World Cup match)? (I)
• How strong was the opposing team in terms of ranking position and the confederation to which they belong? (T and C)
These factors are brought together in the following formula to ascertain the total number of points (P).
P = M x I x T x C
The following criteria apply to the calculation of points:
M: Points for match result
Teams gain three points for a victory, one point for a draw and zero points for a defeat. In a penalty shoot-out, the winning team gains two points and the losing team gains one point.
I: Importance of match
Friendly match (including small competitions): I = 1.0
Fifa World Cup qualifier or confederation-level qualifier: I = 2.5
Confederation-level final competition or Fifa Confederations Cup: I = 3.0
Fifa World Cup final competition: I = 4.0
T: Strength of opposing team
The strength of the opponents is based on the formula: 200 – the ranking position of the opponents.
As an exception to this formula, the team at the top of the ranking is always assigned the value 200 and the teams ranked 150th and below are assigned a minimum value of 50. The ranking position is taken from the opponents’ ranking in the most recently published Fifa/Coca-Cola World Ranking.
C: Strength of confederation
When calculating matches between teams from different confederations, the mean value of the confederations to which the two competing teams belong is used. The strength of a confederation is calculated on the basis of the number of victories by that confederation at the last three Fifa World Cup competitions. Their values are as follows:
Uefa/Conmebol 1.00 Concacaf 0.88
AFC/Caf 0.86 OFC 0.85
Summary
Leader Spain (unchanged)
Moves into top ten None
Moves out of top ten None
Matches played in total 30
Most matches played Tanzania (7 matches)
Biggest move by points Iran (up 70 points)
Biggest move by ranks Seychelles (up 24 ranks)
Biggest drop by points Cuba (down 307 points)
Biggest drop by ranks Cuba (down 53 ranks)
Chan teams and their Continental and World rankings
Group A: South Africa (13 and 62), Mali (7 and 45), Nigeria (4 and 37), Mozambique (34 and 118)
Group B: Zimbabwe (30 and 106), Uganda (22 and 86), Burkina Faso ( 10 and 53), Morocco (17 and 73)
Group C: Ghana (2 and 24), Libya (11 and 59), Ethiopia 24 and 124), Congo (21 and 84)
Group D: DRC (20 and 82), Gabon (19 and 77), Burundi (37 and 124), Mauritania (46 and 177)
Online Reporter