According to the latest FIFA Futsal World Ranking, Zambia is ranked 90th, with Morocco, the Futsal Africa Cup winners, being the highest-ranked African team in 6th place worldwide.
The rankings are from statistics of over 4,600 “A” matches, with Brazil ranked 1st in both men’s and women’s charts.
FIFA defines an international “A” match as a match between two FIFA members for which both members field their first representative team (“A” team).
At the recent Futsal Africa Cup held in Morocco, Zambia managed to get one win while losing twice to Angola and Morocco in the group stages.
“I don’t understand the criteria that FIFA applied”-Cristoforetti.
Zambia number eight in Africa, followed by Equatorial Guinea (62), South Africa (51), Egypt (37), Angola (47), Libya (47), and Cote d’Ivoire (76). Algeria and Mozambique round out the top 10.
However, Andrea Cristoforetti, head coach has questioned the criteria used by FIFA to rank Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea ahead of Zambia.
“To be honest, it is very strange to see Côte d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea in front of us,” The gap between Zambia and South Africa is not realistic“
“Mozambique has not been fairly ranked; I really don’t understand the criteria that FIFA applied to this ranking.”
The gaffer has, however, urged his team to continue working hard to be more competitive on the continent.
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“Nevertheless, as Zambia, we need to get more competitive international games as possible,” he concluded.
