|
|
|
|
| Sports |
| Flames drop further on Fifa ranking |
|
by
Oris Chimenya, 11 October 2004
-
08:14:04
|
Flames continue to drop further on world and Africa levels on the ranking done by the world soccer governing body, Fifa with the team falling to position 108 this month from 104 last month.
This is the biggest fall and the lowest drop the national team has ever recorded since December last year when the Flames were on position 103 before dropping to 105 in January this year.
The fall is likely to affect Malawi’s dreams of having its players properly marketed in the English League clubs who prefer to employ players from national teams which stand on double digit positions.
Fam general secretary Roosevelt Mpinganjira Thursday referred this reporter to his public relations and marketing officer Isabel Maziya who said the association has not yet received the rankings from Fifa.
She however attributed the fall in rank to the team’s recent poor performance in its games.
“All I can say is that I the team has performed badly recently and that is why we are dropping, but I believe if we can do well in the remaining games, we can improve,” said Maziya.
On what needs to be done for the team to perform better, Maziya also referred this reporter to Fam’s vice president for technical issues Steve Msambila who could not be found.
But Polytechnic sports administrator Kamkwamba Kalea, who has been in sports administration for over 20 years, said in a separate interview the problem is that Malawi has ignored grassroots soccer where national talent comes from.
“What should be done is that Malawi should have at least two years of rest during which great investment should be made to soccer.
“It is also because we have removed the schools soccer leagues and replaced them with Massa [Malawi Schools Sports Association] which do not have the same impact,” he said.
Kalea also said the country should also restructure its coaching system because “we have many good and capable coaches only that they are not exposed”.
In June, Malawi held Morocco to a one-all draw at Kamuzu Stadium before holding Guinea to the same margin in July. But she was clobbered by regional soccer underdogs Botswana 0-2 before being grilled by Mozambique another 0-2 in the Cosafa quarter finals.
Fifa makes the rankings at the beginning of every month to rate how national teams are rating on their continental and world levels using indicators which include wins and losses.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
