After back-to-back victories over the Lesotho national football team in the group L 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, Uganda Cranes has climbed four places in the October Fifa rankings released today.
The Cranes are now in 79th position with a total of 1291 points, and are placed at 16th in Africa.
Uganda Cranes beat Lesotho 3-0 and 2-0, in the home and away matches respectively, to move one point closer to the Afcon tournament in Cameroon 2019.
A brace from Emmanuel Okwi and a Farouk Miya penalty were on target in the Namboole game while Miya netted both goals in the return leg in Maseru.
Cranes next opponent on 17th November 2018 at the Mandela National Stadium, Cape Verde, dropped by one slot to 68th.
East African neighbours Kenya are at 105, Tanzania at 136, Burundi (142) while Rwanda at 138.
The top five countries in Africa are; Tunisia (22), Senegal (25), Nigeria (44), Congo DR (46) and Morocco (47).
Last month, Belgium joined France in becoming the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking’s first-ever joint leaders. Now the Red Devils are in sole possession of top spot, by the narrowest possible margin, 1733 to France’s 1732.
Brazil comes in third, World Cup finalists Croatia in fourth and England complete the best five countries.
Gibraltar was the best mover, moving up by 8 places to 190, while Mozambique fell hardest, dropping by 9 places to 122.
The format used by FIFA is named “SUM” as it relies on adding/subtracting points won or lost for a game to/from the previous point totals rather than averaging game points over a given time period as in the previous version of the World Ranking.
The points which are added or subtracted are partially determined by the relative strength of the two opponents, including the logical expectation that teams higher in the ranking should fare better against teams lower in the ranking.
The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be released on 29 November 2018.