SIHLANGU RANKED 110 PLACES BELOW TUNISIA

MBABANE – On paper, Sihlangu will have a huge mountain to climb when they face off with Tunisia early next month.

The Eswatini national football outfit have a date with the North Africans in an Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Qualifier on September 9.  On top of parading stars who are fresh from the FIFA World Cup in Russia, Tunisia boast a higher rank on the FIFA charts. This is as per the standings, which were released by the world soccer governing body yesterday.

Tunisia are number one in Africa and 24th in the world, while Sihlangu are 134th globally. In Africa, Eswatini are ranked 34th out of 54.
The last rankings were released in June after Sihlangu’s disastrous campaign in the COSAFA Cup in Polokwane, South Africa. They were also 134th.
The charts are expectedly led by recently-crowned world champions France ahead of bronze medallists Belgium. Croatia, who were surprise runners-up, are fourth.

These are the first rankings since the conclusion of the biggest soccer tournament in Russia. The July rankings were withheld, as FIFA wanted to introduce a new formula.

The old rankings formula gave more weight to UEFA (Europe) and Conmebol (South America) ‚ and less to the other confederations‚ leading to the top 50 places being full of European and South American teams. The new method adds or subtracts points based on the result of a match rather than calculating an average.

The amount added (or subtracted) is calculated based on the strength of the opponent and the importance of the match.
Teams will also find it more difficult to ‘rig’ the system‚ for example, by playing very few friendly matches.
As the new system does not reward teams for avoiding friendly matches‚ it will most likely result in more friendly games.

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