The Zambia national team has finished the year in bullish mood rising 16 places on the FIFA/Coca Cola ladder to break into the top 10 in Africa.
Zambia who ranked 62nd in the world last month are now ranked 46th in the world just behind African Championd Nigeria who are 9th.
The leap in ranking will be a major morale booster for the former African Champions who are already in camp preparing for the Equatorial Guinea Africa Cup of Nations.
Tunisia, who are Zambia’s group stage opponents at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations tournament are ranked second behind Algeria who are Africa’s top ranked team while Cape Verde have fallen one place to rank 7th in Africa.
Africa’s Top 10:
1. Algeria 2. Tunisia 3. Ivory Coast 4. Senegal 5. Ghana 6. Guinea 7. Cape Verde 8. Cameroon 9. Nigeria 10. Zambia
Ba Zamfoot, point of correction: Zambia are the biggest movers in the latest FIFA rankings as Chipolopolo climbed 16 places to sit in 46th position globally and 10th best in Africa.
This has come at a right time and will pose as a massive morale-booster for Honour Janza and the Chipolopolo Boys.
The Top ten Africans occupy position 18 to 46.
18 Algeria
22 Tunisia
28 Cote D’Voire
35 Senegal
37 Ghana
39 Guinea
40 Cape Verde
42 Cameroon
43 Nigeria
46 Zambia
What do U expect we won the afcon in 2012.@t John Zambia is a power house.
Wow! We are coming to sit on the number that follow zero! Chipolopolo iyee we are the noble eagles
Good move but lets show the world that we are indeed Africas best by winning the Africa cup. And, Mr. Janza, please dont disturb that team you have by starting to recall those madalas you have already discarded. Lets look forward and not backwards. At the coming Africa cup, we will need speed and not slow motion players. In addition, be carefull with that Chisamba Lungu; he is too playfull. The national team is a place for serios business and not comedy. You can maybe be using him as a sub when we are leading and are remaining with maybe 10 minutes to play
It is good for Zambian football. It goes on to show that Zambia is a football powerhouse. Congrats Chipolopolo!
Rankings are useless. How did Zambia managed to move without playing any single international match from 19th November, 2014?
Let those who know the formula used in rankings come and explain this coz a win over Cape Verd was counted and Zambia made improvements on its ranking from 21 to 15 in africa.
Mozambique 0 Zambia 1
Zambia 3 Niger 0
Zambia 1 Cape Verde 0
wow! That’s remarkable but difficult to understand.
Rankings are really irrelevant i have simply stopped paying attention to them coz they deserve none if you ask me
This ranking system still baffles me. South Africa were in the top 10 when they were getting hammered by everyone to include Ethiopia and now that they are winning they are outranked by Nigeria a team they overcame to qualify for AFCON. The mathematical permutation is quite difficult to understand mwe.
Am also wondering how Bafana Bafana are not in the top ten how come naija be there? Useless rankings
As a matter of fact Zamfoot should not even give credence to this bogus ranking by even publishing them on this honorable platform
What do you mean Zamfoot should not report about this? What do you want them to report on? Provide news for Zamfoot then.
Rankngz ar use less..we won the afcon when we wer ranked 16th..they don’t count
South africa should be among the best ten. Zambia is full of talent. the shepolopolo,under 17,under 20 and the senior team have all qualified this year for continental games,that is very very encouraging. Let us call a spade a spade,zambia is a power house in African football.
Shepolopolo or Chipolopolo?
Zambia is an African giant we will be seeded in the world cup draw for 2018
This bafana that you are talking about is a fluke team. They will be humble at afcon 2015. This is the first time bafana hs qualified for a tournament in many years why should they be in the top 10 in africa.
@John if you have not watched Bafana during the qualifiers, i would urge you to keep it neutral. Ask Nigeria, Congo, Sudan and they will attest for you. Respect them and urge your team to prepare well for the tournament.
Guys who think the rankings don’t matter are sadly mistaken. These rankings, as crazy as they may seem, are the difference between finding ourselves in a group with Ghana, Cameroun, or Ivorycoast or being in a group with Malawi and Comoros. Having a high ranking is very important to any world cup hopes we may have. Don’t underestimate their effects even if you don’t understand them.
Well done Zambia.
That’s very true@ positive thinking, they indeed play a huge role as far as far as seeding is concerned, it’s just the way that they come up with it that leaves a lot of us confused.
Even if they don’t make sense, as long as we are climbing up, it’s fine. Other than going down.
Billy “as long as we are climbing up its fine” lol
@Watch Over, Yes my brother. Lolest.
@Chipolopolo 1 rankings has never won us a game have they???????This or ranking system is a sharm.Thats what i mean `
Seedings or no seedings when you are good ur good Rankings don’t matter.
i did my own research and i have the answer why chipolopolo was highly ranged.zambia they played a match and win against highly ranged team in africa . the was ranged number six it is now on number seven.when zambia played cape verde in their final round of nation cup qualifier the statistics team at fifa had already collected data.i mean results of matches.the previous high rank was a result of bashing niger, a draw against cotedivore and a win against mozambique
point of correction. the recent youth games played in zimbabwe it has nothing to with cosafa cup. this tournament which is played by teams which participate in cosafa cup which is being poorly managed by south africa.they boys who participated in this this tournament which zambia won are under 18 boys. these games are not organized by football associations.for instance zimbabwe picked school children who put up an amazing performance and reached to the final.do not blame faz for not taking any responsibility.faz wanted to send an under 17 team to prepare for the nation cup youth games like what south africa did. if the under twenty coach believe the boys who played at the tournament are good enough he is totally lost and he is using a wrong measuring yard stick. they played against kids.
.those who do not believe in rankings they should start believing now.when zambia was not playing well during the days of renard whom i believe destroyed chipolopolo the were lowly ranked.now the team is doing well under the new technical team lead by honour jaza zambia is now back on the map.we are now a force to reckon with.
This is where we belong, in the top 10. A very good way to end the year!
Guys, we should stop cheating ourselves. Zambia is not a powerhouse and the reason I say that is consistency. We are not consistent enough for us to label ourselves as such. The tag belongs to teams that are always at or near the top more often than not. We are a team that has bounced around for decades. Even this past couple of years, we have gone from number 2 in Africa to number 17 and now back in top 10. Powerhouses do not do that. We need to be consistent in our performances.
I agree with you on this one. Consistency is the main issue.
The point is we should continue winning games and be active during international friendly windows. Playing higher ranked teams than us also helps because you pick more points off them.
And from the top ten list, only Nigeria is missing the 2015 EG AFCON. This means that this will be a highly competitive tournament. Apart from the hosts, all teams are going to fight it out to their last drop of sweat. Teams with the right mentality will definitely succeed.
How do you judge consistency? Zambia has the third highest number of appearances at the African cup of nations with 18 appearances. Not even Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal or Ivory Coast can match that record. Zambia is always there or thereabouts. Doesn’t that make us a powerhouse?
Papa. We are team that have failed to win away from home for 2 years almost. That list of away games includes Lesotho, we finally broke that by beating Mozambique this year. Does that sound like a powerhouse? Qualifying for Africa cup does not make us a power house. We failed to make it out of the group stage for 14 years, before finally ms king qtr finals in 2010 and winning it in 2012 then back to getting knocked out in grp stage…that’s not consistent. We are not a team that is feared in Africa. We win some big games and the world gets shocked everytime, because we are not top performers. We can go from drawing with Lesotho to beating Ghana. I just think we are hyping ourselves too much. It is this same hype after 2012 that left us feeling invincible only to be brought down to earth. Powerhouses should not struggle against Lesotho or Niger.
On top of that we haven’t even qualified to the world cup before. We are always knocked out of the world cup qualification.
I like de way de discussion is going,zambia is not power house in african simply becus dey r not consistant
@Billy. At least you see it aswell. We get too carried away with small victories. You can’t keep calling yourself a powerhouse after every win. Let our opponents call us that not mweka.
Bolapazed bafana is a weak and they failed to beat a Nigerian team in turmoil. Both Sudan and Congo beat Nigeria. They are no strong team.
That’s good for Zambia….
I never knew there are bloggers here who can be gracious enough to accept the fact as it is
@Positive thinking and Billy, you are the men for standing for the truth no matter how bitter it is
However, Zambia cannot be a minnow , certainly they are not among the big boys but cannot be put in a minnows group. I guess they are intermediate
Be consistent at the highest level almost all the time and you will earn and deserve your power house,as you want to be called, for now, you are not yet there
True @Coach
@positive thinking: you should give analytical thinking lessons to mumbi whose analytical IQ is below zero. All he does is to cast insinuations & make comparisons that are far from any sense of reasonableness
THANK YOU INDEED , Positive Thinking . You have reassured me that there are indeed intelligent and matured individuals parading this for.
Correction: last word is : forum
When will Zambia qualify FOR THE WORLD CUP (mundial$ for the FIRST TIME. Only soccer giants like GHANA NIGERIA IVORY COAST SENEGAL EGYPT TUNISIA ALGERIA ETC HAVE DONE SO . Mostly tes from the West & the North.
Oh God, give them a chance in 2018 or thereafter.
Paradox & mumbi should start going to church for this to happen.