Stars recover slightly in FIFA global ranks.

Tanzania has leapfrogged four places up in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola rankings released by the world soccer governing body yesterday.

The country has been placed 136th in the rankings after posting 218 points during September.

A barren draw that the senior national soccer team, Taifa Stars, managed in the African Nations Cup’s group G qualifier with Nigeria, looks to have contributed to the slight improvement in Tanzania’s ranking.

Tanzania has an opportunity to improve its position in the next FIFA/Coca-Cola ranking when Taifa Stars host Malawi in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers’ duel at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam next week.

Much as Tanzania has managed to scale four places up the world rankings, the country is still way below most of its neighbouring East African countries.

Uganda tops the rest of the East African countries in the FIFA/Coca-Cola ranking, as the country has been positioned 75th, with Sudan, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Burundi and Kenya taking the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth spots, respectively.

Only one member of the region, South Sudan, is below Tanzania in the world ranking, having been positioned 144th.

Much as it is among the lowest-ranked nations, South Sudan can take solace from emerging as one the biggest movers in the world ranking, as the country has moved 54 places up.

There are some notable changes in the October edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola world ranking.

At the top, Germany (2nd, up 1) have reclaimed second spot and trail leaders Argentina (first, unchanged) by just 18 points. Belgium (3rd, down 1) complete the top three.

Other climbers in the top ten include Portugal (4th, up 2) and Spain (6th, up 5), while Colombia (5th, down 1) and Brazil (7th, down 2) have lost ground.

Spain’s re-entry after three months is down to two wins in qualifiers for UEFA EURO 2016, while Wales (8th, up 1) and Austria (11th, up 2) have achieved their highest-ever rankings, with the latter having already qualified for next year’s tournament.

The other biggest movers in the top 50 are Norway (34th, up 35) and Cape Verde Islands (41st, up 15). A number of teams outside the top 50 have also made big leaps, namely Liberia (95th, up 65), Nicaragua (95th, up 44), the Central African Republic (126th, up 42), the Cook Islands (166th, up 39), Georgia (110th, up 37) and American Samoa (164th, up 35).

Samoa (162nd, up 34), Finland (64th, up 28), Mauritania (89th, up 25), Antigua and Barbuda (83rd, up 22), Aruba (115th, up 22) and Burundi (113th, up 21) are the other countries that have made significant move up the ranking.

The results of 149 international 'A' matches have been taken into account in the October edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, of which 48 were World Cup qualifiers in the CONCACAF (12), Asia (30) and Oceania (6) zones, and 75 were qualifiers for confederation championships in Europe (50) and Africa (25). The other 26 matches were friendlies.

This takes the total number of matches evaluated so far this year to 668.