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OpenWarriors Fall Seven Places On Latest FIFA World Rankings
The Zimbabwe Senior Men’s Football National team, the Warriors, dropped seven places to number 129 on the latest FIFA Rankings released on Thursday, 20 June.
The Warriors’ latest ranking came close to matching their worst global ranking of 131, which they experienced in 2016.
The Warriors were in action in the recent international window and lost their two matches in the 2026 CAF World Cup Qualifiers Group C. Zimbabwe lost 0-2 to Lesotho, before losing 3-1 to South Africa.
In Africa, the Warriors dropped five places to number 38 with 1122.54 points.
2022 World Cup winners Argentina remained the top-ranked side in the world and Morocco is topping the African ranking.
Speaking to The Herald, top Warriors fan Chris Romario Musekiwa said the team’s lowly rankings were a reflection of poor leadership and lack of planning. He said:
The Warriors slumping to 129th in the world is disastrous and shows our standards in terms of international football continue to fall.
The Warriors have had five different coaches in under 12 months under the current FIFA-appointed ZIFANormalisation Committee chaired by Lincoln Mutasa.
The coaches have been appointed on an interim basis, and the squad for the 2024 COSAFA tournament that kicks off next Wednesday in Gqeberha, South Africa, is yet to be announced. Said Musekiwa:
We might have quality players playing in some of the top leagues and some talented young players but if we do not plan accordingly for international assignments we plan to fail and the results will always be catastrophic.
Just recently a caretaker coach was appointed, a week before key World Cup matches in South Africa The coach didn’t have time to play any friendly and assess all his players.
Football does not lie, we performed dismally. Lesotho (ranked 149th) outplayed us because they have been together as a team for more than a month.
We are imploring the ZIFA Normalisation Committee to appoint a substantive coach to take charge of the Warriors with immediate effect.
We still have six more World Cup qualifying matches to play and if we can put our house in order we can expect better results in future international matches.
The AFCON qualifiers will be starting soon. ZIFA should take the national team seriously and ensure the team is adequately prepared ahead of any international assignments.
Also speaking to The Herald, Zimbabwe National Soccer Supporters Association (ZNSSA) secretary-general Joseph Mutawu said poor funding of the national team and corruption have resulted in the Warriors’ slump. He said:
It’s a cause for concern. It means our football standards in the country are going down. The Warriors will not be able to attract friendly matches from big and competitive games.
This will also affect our players in terms of selling them to other competitive leagues in the world.
I would attribute this slump to poor preparations and poor funding of our national team, selfish and corrupt football Administrators of our game.
But the major cause of all this was the Asiagate. Many people would want to conveniently sweep it under the carpet but it was the start of all our problems.
That is when the Warriors are beaten by unknown teams.
World Top 10: 1. Argentina, 2. France, 3. Belgium, 4. Brazil, 5. England, 6. Portugal, 7. Netherlands, 8. Spain. 9. Croatia, 10. Italy.
Africa Top 10: 1. Morocco, 2. Senegal, 3. Egypt, 4. Ivory Coast, 5. Nigeria, 6. Tunisia, 7. Algeria, 8. Cameroon, 9. Mali, 10. South Africa.
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