Brave Warriors down two places on Fifa rankings

WINDHOEK – Namibia has moved down two places in Africa and in the world on the latest International Federation of Football Associations (Fifa) rankings, and is now ranked 30th on the continent and 111th in the world.

The Brave Warriors, Namibia’s senior men’s football team, have played five games so far this year, winning two, drawing two and losing one.

They beat Uganda and Ivory Coast in the group stages of the African Nations Championship (Chan) tournament in Morocco in February this year, and went on to draw with Zambia in their last group game before losing to hosts Morocco 2-0 in the quarter-finals.

Prior to that they had drawn 1-all with Rwanda in a friendly match played in Tunisia in the run-up to the Chan tournament.

Meanwhile, Namibia is expected to play a friendly match against Lesotho on 27 March 2018.

The Warriors are also expected to play in the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) tournament slated for South Africa in May and June this year.

They will then resume their Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers with a clash against Zambia at home in a match that was postponed by the Confederation of African (CAF) from February to later this year or early next year.

CAF postponed the matches to allow the five countries who qualified for the 2018 World Cup to prepare extensively.

Namibia lost their opening match away in the qualifiers 1-0 to Guinea Bissau on 10 June 2017.

Their next opponents, Zambia, lost by the same score line away to Mozambique whom they will play next in Maputo before hosting them in Windhoek in October.

The Brave Warriors will then face Guinea-Bissau at home before concluding the qualifiers with an away match to Zambia.

Brave Warriors Coach Ricardo Mannetti has in the past emphasised the importance of playing competitive matches on Fifa dates, saying the higher the team is ranked, the kinder the pairing they receive when it comes to draws for tournaments or qualifiers. – Nampa