Rwanda moves up one spot in Fifa rankings

RWANDA’S Fifa rankings have improved with the Amavubi Stars moving one place to 135th position in the latest rankings released on Thursday. In Africa, Rwanda also improved to 38th after accumulating 224 points. In East Africa, the country is tied in sixth position with Sudan. Mali, who hosts Rwanda on June 9 in a return leg of the 2014 World Cup qualifier, improved its rankings by three places to 23rd in the world and third in Africa. In the Cecafa region, Uganda leads the standings but dropped two positions following their 2-0 loss to Libya in a friendly match last week. Uganda dropped to 93rd and 24th in Africa. CHAN opponents Ethiopia moved up one position to 106th and are ranked second in region; Tanzania are third and ranked 109th; Kenya are ranked 123rd with Burundi ranked 125th, ten positions ahead of Rwanda. The top team in Africa remains Ivory Coast, who slipped one place to 13th in the overall ranking. There are also a lot of changes in the Confederation of African Football, with Ghana climbing to second, and Nigeria slipping three places to fourth. There is no change in fifth place with Algeria occupying the position. Chad made the biggest gain as they leapt 12 spots to 154 in the world and 41st in Africa. Big losers in June’s rankings are Senegal who have dropped 23 places to 99th position globally, Benin, who dropped 16 places globally, while Guinea and The Gambia both fell 15 spots. Behind the leading pack in the overall ranking there has been significant movement in the top ten. The Netherlands, who didn’t play last month, have benefited from the devaluation of older matches and moved up to fifth at the expense of Portugal (6th, down 1), Colombia (7th, down 1) and England (9th, down 2). Italy held on to eighth spot, and Ecuador are 10th. The upcoming FIFA Confederations Cup and the latest round of qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil will ensure plenty of movement in the next edition of the FIFA Ranking.

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Rwanda moves up one spot in Fifa rankings