After achieving a jump of 16 places in the October 2017 rankings, T&T has dropped six spots to 89th in this month’s Fifa/Coca Cola rankings.
The Soca Warriors’ drop comes following two underwhelming draws against Grenada and Guyana on the two Fifa dates in November.
The Dennis Lawrence-coached team which has been unsuccessful in qualifying for next year’s World Cup in Russia is now 9th in the Concacaf region and sits behind the likes of Jamaica, 54th overall, Haiti (57th), and Curacao (84th) in the Caribbean.
St Kitts and Nevis (113th), Antigua and Barbuda (140th) and Barbados (154th) are the next closest ranked Caribbean teams.
Mexico continues to lead the way in Concacaf with an overall world ranking of 16th while the USA moved up three spots since their last ranking to sit at 24th despite their failure to qualify for the World Cup.
Costa Rica (26th), Jamaica, Panama (56th) and Honduras (70th) are all in the confederation’s top ten.
This is the final Fifa ranking before the draw for the Russia World Cup takes place on December 1 in Moscow and the conclusion of 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifiers have made their mark on the latest world ranking.
Senegal and the winners of the European zone play-offs among the biggest climbers.
The Lions of Teranga have, in fact, risen to 23rd—their highest-ever position on the global ladder—on the back of securing a first World Cup place since 2002. They are now the top-ranked African nation, having leapfrogged fellow Russia 2018 qualifiers Tunisia (27th, up 1) and Egypt (31st, down 1).
Europe’s play-off kings are also on the up, with Switzerland (8th, up 3), Denmark (12th, up 7), Croatia (17th, up 1) and Sweden (18th, up 7) having climbed a combined total of 18 places. The Swiss have, as a result, returned to the top ten, while the Swedes earned this edition’s highest points total following their 1-0 aggregate win over four-time world champions Italy.
The ranking’s top five—Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina and Belgium all maintained their positions from the October edition.
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Warriors slip six spots in rankings; T&T friendly against Guyana fails to get FIFA sanction
By Lasana Liburd (Wired868.com).
The Trinidad and Tobago National Senior Team slipped six spots in the latest FIFA rankings today, after failing to record any wins in the last international match window against Grenada and Guyana at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva.
The Soca Warriors are now 89th in the world—some five places lower than they were when Dennis Lawrence was appointed head coach in February—and ninth in CONCACAF, where they are behind regional outfits, Jamaica, Haiti and Curaçao.
FIFA calculates its rankings using a formula that considers result, importance of match (whether friendly or competitive), strength of opponent and strength of confederation. The South America confederation is ranked highest, followed closely by Europe while Africa, Asia, Oceania and North and Central America and the Caribbean are tied last.
Only one of Trinidad and Tobago’s last two outings was considered a full international and counted towards the rankings, though.
There has been debate as to which football body should bear responsibility for failing to submit paperwork to FIFA for the friendly between Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana on 14 November.
Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) general secretary Justin Latapy-George assured Wired868 that the host organisation did its job.
“The Grenada game received full sanctioning from FIFA,” said Latapy-George. “Guyana didn’t submit info in a timely manner [so that match] could only be played as a practice game. There was a challenge on their end in getting the full documentation to FIFA.”
Whether a 1-1 home draw to Guyana—then ranked 165th in the world—would have benefitted Trinidad and Tobago is another story.
Ironically, Guyana still climbed one spot to 164th while Grenada, who drew 2-2 with the Warriors, dropped three places to 160th.