RWANDA has ended the year recording her worst ever ranking after dropping five places to 132nd in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking released on Wednesday in Zurich.Rwanda is 132nd in the world and 37th in Africa.

Exactly 12 months ago, Rwanda recorded their best ranking 78 but things have gone completely wrong since then.
Rwanda fell out of the top 100 early this year and has since struggled to lift herself up. Instead, the situation has gone from bad to worse in recent months characterized by a bad showing the qualifiers of the 2010 Africa Nations Cup/ World Cup as well as a bad start to the 2012 Nations Cup qualifiers characterized by identical 3-0 defeats against West African giants Ivory Coast and Benin.

The local football body, Ferwafa has profoundly attributed the pitiable ranking to the decision to rebuild the Amavubi Stars around youthful players.

"All I can say is that Amavubi Stars is work in progress. We are trying to build a new team and we know that it will take some time before things fall in place,” Ferwafa’s CEO Jules Kalisa said.

Rwanda’s quarter-final exit in the just ended Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup could also have had a bearing on the dismal ranking.

The team got knocked out after a 1-0 defeat against hosts and eventual champions Tanzania. Cecafa leaders Uganda also suffered a huge fall after dropping 17 slots; from 63rd to 80th.
Sudan is 92nd, Tanzania is 116th while Kenya is 120 in the world rankings.

For the third month in a row, Spain tops the table while the Netherlands have claimed the title of best mover of the year for the team that earned the most points in 2010.

Some teams out of the top ten have also caused a stir.
Montenegro, who just a year ago were ranked 74th, gained 368 points to finish the year in 25th position. Botswana was also successful, starting the year in 118th position and ending it in the 53rd position.

Ends