By James Robert Kayindi
Just like South Africa’s Bafana Bafana, the Uganda Cranes have also climbed six spots to 78th from last month’s 84th according to the world FIFA rankings that were released on Thursday at the body’s base in Zurich, Switzerland. The Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) showed that Uganda are now 20th in Africa and 78th in the whole world with 425 points.
The Uganda Cranes had inconsistent performances in the recently concluded Africa Cup of Nations’ qualifiers where they lost to Togo, home and away plus the last stroke that broke the camel’s back when they lost 2-0 to Guinea in Morocco. However, Uganda managed to defeat Ethiopia by 3-0 at Namboole in an international friendly before surprising Ghana with a stunning 1-0 win at the same stadium in the second last game of the qualifiers.
Uganda also had other impressive performances in the same campaign where they held Ghana to one-all draw on the opening day of the campaign in Tamale before beating Guinea 2-0 at home even when we didn’t qualify by the end of the campaign.
In comparison with our neighbours in the CECAFA region, Uganda is still ranked highest followed by Rwanda in the 90th position, Ethiopia (110), Tanzania (112), Kenya (114th), Sudan (115th), South Sudan (189th), Eritrea (202th), Djibouti (204th) and Somalia at 206th.
While Algeria still lead Africa’s rank log, world cup champions Germany have also maintained their top spot in the entire world followed by Argentina, Colombia, Belgium, Netherlands and Brazil respectively.
Email Robert: Robert.k.circles@gmail.com
