‘Çredit crunch’ hits RubberBullets as they drop 16 places
- Wednesday, February 11, 2009, 23:50
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But the shock of this çredit crunch’ is that Zambia has dropped sixteen places on the Coca Cola/FIFA World ranking and is now placed 92 on the World stage and for fisrt time in over 15 years the ‘Rubber Bullets’ are outside the top 20 on the continental ranking sitting on position 24. This is Zambia’s worst ever ranking.
Gone are the days when one would name the starting line-up! Above the KK11 not Chipolopolo….CopperBullets or as they are known now as RubberBullets pose for a photo at Independence Stadium.
One fan from the Copperbelt sent the photo below and wrote these words, These were the days when we were so proud of the national team. I don’t think many can say that for the current rubber bullets. More money being spent but poor results
Back Row L-R: Efford Chabala, Stone Nyirenda, Derby Makinka, Charles Musonda, Eston Mulenga & Wisdom Chansa
Front Row L-R:Whiteson Changwe, John Soko, Great Kau, Lucky Msiska & Ashios Melu
According to the latest rankings released on Wednesday by FIFA, Zambia’s 1-0 loss to South Africa was the only match which was taken into account. The Cecafa Cup matches in which the Herve Renard charges recorded only one win from four matches did not play a role in determining the rankings.
Zambia’s highest FIFA ranking came in the month of February in 1996 just after finishing third at the 1996 African Cup of Nations in South Africa.


It happens when seriousness is lacking. What is happening?
Hi Bloggers
I know its disheartening to see the Zambian national team plummet sixteen places down the fifa rankings but if you analyse the fifa rankings you will notice that all big African sides dropped in fifa rankings due to inactivity and if you look at teams like Egypt they have 230 lost points on the fifa rankings while we have just lost 49points but the problem is we were already ranked 76th before this 16 place drop which means it will make it impossible for an English premiership side to sign a Zambian player in that he would not be given a work permit
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Prev. rank (Jan 2009)
Last Updated 11 Feb 2009Next Release 11 Mar 2009Ranking Zonal Ranking Team Pts
Feb 09 +/- Ranking
Jan 09 +/- Pts
Jan 09
16 1 Cameroon 900 -2 -89
23 2 Nigeria 827 -6 -64
30 3 Egypt 744 -15 -230
35 4 Ghana 714 -10 -99
36 5 Côte d’Ivoire 709 -9 -76
41 6 Morocco 656 0 16
45 7 Guinea 611 -7 -99
47 8 Mali 601 -4 -25
53 9 Tunisia 568 -8 -47
60 10 Senegal 534 -10 -49
62 11 Burkina Faso 520 0 8
63 12 Gabon 514 -1 2
66 13 Algeria 497 -2 -4
69 14 Congo 486 1 2
70 15 South Africa 485 4 27
71 16 Uganda 478 -3 -11
73 17 Gambia 465 2 19
75 18 Angola 453 -8 -39
80 19 Libya 432 -2 8
81 20 Benin 423 18 61
84 21 Sudan 412 9 29
86 22 Rwanda 406 5 15
88 23 Togo 397 2 -8
92 24 Zambia 381 -16 -49
94 25 Congo DR 373 -8 -37
95 26 Mozambique 372 3 0
96 27 Kenya 367 -12 -46
100 28 Zimbabwe 349 -4 -25
101 29 Ethiopia 348 1 0
102 30 Malawi 342 1 0
103 31 Tanzania 341 -2 -11
106 32 Cape Verde Islands 332 1 0
109 33 Sierra Leone 315 1 0
113 34 Namibia 297 2 1
118 35 Botswana 283 -1 0
124 36 Equatorial Guinea 256 -2 -1
126 37 Chad 246 -8 -14
134 38 Burundi 217 -6 -19
138 39 Swaziland 209 -1 19
139 40 Madagascar 207 -4 0
141 41 Liberia 179 -2 0
145 42 Niger 168 -3 0
150 43 Mauritania 149 -1 0
160 44 Eritrea 108 0 0
162 45 Lesotho 103 -1 -3
169 46 Mauritius 74 0 0
172 47 Seychelles 72 0 0
178 48 Somalia 57 0 0
186 49 Djibouti 41 0 0
188 50 Guinea-Bissau 38 0 0
199 51 Comoros
Zamfoot, your caption for the national team above is wrong. In the back row [standing] that’s not Timothy Mwitwa. It’s Derby Mankinka. Front row [squatting], the first player on the left is Whiteson Changwe and not Samuel Chomba. And the player you identify as Winter Mumba is Lucky Msiska.
There’s nothing scientific about the FIFA rankings and serious football writers don’t give them much credence. For instance, the United States is now ranked 20th in the world. The U.S. WOULD NOT qualify from any of the five African World Cup groups. And they cannot beat any of the top ten nations in Africa.
I never understand the current fifa ranking as long as african teams are unfairly ranked. Is it that african players are making a name in the premier league than the english players and they want to deny us that chance. Its all the same for Zambia whether we win or lose they drop. I think these world fifa ranking should be released once a year while continental ranking every month.
i dont think we hve been that bad to drop 16 places y.
Oh my God! awe imwe naimwe. All the teams we will play at chan or world cup qualifiers are above us…NO!!!
having looked at stats for the teams below,there was not so much activity compared to what zambia did.i know we have not been the best team in africa,but from wat i know about rankings,it goes along with the number of games that a team has played.dropping 16places after recording some victorie does not make sense at all.caf should come up with thier own rankings as well.
57 FYR Macedonia FYR Macedonia
59 Bosnia-Herzegovina Bosnia-Herzegovina
60 Senegal Senegal 5
61 Burkina Faso Burkina Faso
63 Gabon Gabon
64 Jamaica Jamaica
65 Wales Wales
67 Venezuela Venezuela
67 Latvia Latvia
69 Congo Congo
72 Uzbekistan Uzbekistan
74 Bahrain Bahrain
75 Angola Angola
76 Peru Peru
77 Iceland Iceland
78 Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago
79 Albania Albania
80 Libya Libya
81 Benin Benin
82 New Zealand New Zealand
83 Austria Austria
84 Sudan Sudan
85 Iraq Iraq
86 Rwanda Rwanda
87 Oman Oman
88 Canada Canada
88 Togo Togo
90 Belarus Belarus
91 Qatar Qatar
Ba Jaggari,
What are you basing your facts on commenting on the US. The US usually go to the second round of the World Cup and even went as far as the quarter finals in 1994 (but Romario’s brilliance) with only a few minutes to go. The same second round is not usually tasted by GREAT AFRICAN NATIONS you refer to. ONLY one out of five AFRICA World Cup representatives on average gets to the second round of the World Cup(Nigeria-1994), Cameroun-1990), Senegal-2002, and Morocco-1986), Ghana -2006) i think, the rest of the African nations have always struggled to get to the second round of the World Cup, so i wouldn’t buy into someone even saying their (US) qualifying group is weak. Mexico that normally gives Brazil and Argentina problems are usually beaten by the US. Kindly educate me.
Though i agree we have not been doing well we have actually gone down.But teams like Senegal who did not even qualify for the next round of World & Nations cup qualifiers are always in the top 10.Even Angola is ahead of us.I also feel Egypt being African Champions should be # 1 in Africa.Kenya & Malawi who did well during the last round of qualifiers are ranked # 27 & # 30??
Like i have said before them Fifa rankings the never cease to amaze me.
Ba Sibs,
There was a time between 1994 and 1996 Zambia was ranked number 1 in Africa without being African Champions. So Egypt should not necessarily be number 1 as FIFA rankings are not based on one tournament. Same goes for my team SPAIN who i think are number 1 ranked but not world champions. Let’s just work had as FIFA obviously have rules they follow and don’t look at nations as they are non-political. Naikosa, so tubombeshefye as another debacle ku CHAN (most likely!!) will further see us being in the same league with Seychelles, Comoro Islands, Papua New Guinea, Haiti, Somalia etc.
Our competitiors were busy playing freindlies last night and increasing their chances of rising on the rankings whilst our secretariat could not even organise a friendly against the likes of Central African Republic. We new very well that our planned game against cameroun had fallen thru but we didnt go out there to seek alternatives. Our secretariat, people, is not functioning. The focus is more on tickets to Nigeria for the CAF congress/ awards, International Transfer Certificates for Mayuka, Mbola etc The day to day administration at Footbal House is in Shambles. Failing to organise a game with so much notice ( FIFA days are known well in advance ) is serious incompetence.
Zamfoot,the team in the pic is the one Amayenge sung about.The game was aganist Zaire & we crushed them 4-2.This was truly a crack team.Kaya if we will ever have such a team
And you guys just blame the coach, there are things beyond the coach, players leaving, lack of frendlies etc.
It does pain to my heart of heart whenever i look at the standings because we have the right amunitions to fire but we keep on insiting on the blanks.Kalu it your job to improve,because at the end of term of office all these will count.Why can’t you spend time cleaning your house before admiring those high position.At soccer house things are not ok.You said its high time EX-FOOTBALLERS SHOULD HAVE A SAY IN RUNNING SOCCER.We your say here in zambia first.And we need this year.
@Zamfoot
Egypt are crap. They are not as good as the papers make them to be. About world rankings forget the rubbish, for it does not mean anything
Thats the point Uncle Bobs the rankings are not really on merit.I know how the system works but i feel it needs a review.
Well i dont no how the rankings are done but i still cant c zambia doing any better with the way we are going about our affairs. maybe we need a total clean up starting with faz who cant sell our game then….
One Year in office, I would safely say Kalu and his administration Have Failed. I thought with the coming of Kalu into Faz and his claim that he has international connections, i thought The Team would be playing proper friendlies but alas its the same old story. From our current performance we can even be number 120 in the World
Justice, you are doing EGPTY, “Injustice”. Majelasi mudala nagonishani? EGPTY won the Africa cup back to back and their clubs dominate Africa, how good can you get?
Stars, Pharaohs Draw
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Amr Zaki and Laryea KingstonIt was controversy galore yesterday when the Black Stars of Ghana and the Pharaohs of Egypt played an international friendly at the Cairo International Stadium, which ended 2-2.
After allowing a bogus goal that did not cross the line in the first half, the referee awarded a penalty against the hosts in the early minutes of the second half, which did not go down well with the Egyptian fans in the stands.
Indeed, the Black Stars were a pale shadow of themselves in the first half, as the striking duo of Mohammed Zidan and Amr Zaki of Egypt tormented the Ghanaian defence of Eric Addo, Jonathan Quartey, Nana Kwesi Agyemang and John Paintsil. With tens of thousands of supporters backing them, the Pharaohs were virtually running amok, raiding the Ghanaian goal area at will. And Eric Addo’s mis-kick nearly caused the Ghanaians, but Richard Kingson’s spectacular save kept the Black Stars in the game.
With a few minutes to end the first half, however, the referee drew the ire of the Ghanaians when he whistled for a goal even though Mohammed Chowki’s shot did not cross the line after bouncing off the cross bar. Scores at the end of the first half remained 1-0 in favour of Egypt.
The Black Stars lifted up their game in the second half, getting a penalty for their efforts after an Egyptian defender handled the ball in the penalty box from a Paintsil cross. Skipper Stephen Appiah neatly converted the ball, making the scores 1-1.
With Anthony Annan, Laryea Kingston and Sulley Muntari in midfield, the Black Stars began to dominate the game, with the Egyptians chasing shadows. Stephen Appiah, who was an auxiliary striker on the day, after trapping Jonathan Quartey’s clearance, outran a defender and shot a left-footer, which was parried by the Egyptian keeper; but the ball fell in the path of Prince Tagoe, who slotted it home to bring the scores to 2-1.
In the dying embers of the game however, the Pharaohs equalized through a goalmouth melee.
By Mohammed Muniru Kassim
I agree that FIFA rankings no longer makes sense but this shouldn’t make us relax.We need to get back where we belong though it appears. People on top have no idea on how to go about it.HR has had more preparatory games than any Zambian coach in the last ten years & its shocking to learn that the guy has never won any of these prep games.In his 9months has Chipolopolo coach the Frenchman has used over 57 players & he is yet to name his national side.Don’t be suprised to see more experitments in the Egypt game b’coz this guy seems to be more of a scout than a national coach.
Can we take a leaf from SA they utilise Fifa Calender on friendlies,last evening despite Chasing shadows against a determined Chile,they were able to gauge their peak which is not bad its all learning bt us its all Rhetorics no plans 4even the razed 44yr independence Stadium be pragmatic and no talkshows leave that to oprah Winfrey
As much as I wud want to dismiss these rankings as crap I think they should come as an eye opener that things are not okay with our soccer in Zambia. Guys, just look at our performance in the recent past, u wud agree with me that we are no longer a dominant force. We even struggle against the likes of Swaziland on our road to this round of qualifixn. What we would want to regard as our peers Moroco thrashed us and nw Cameroun are even shuning to play us. Guys things are nt okay on the field of play for us & unfortunately adminstratively its evn worse. FAZ cant even line up a friendly for our team, recently they couldnt undastand each other with their own coach the list goes on and on. This slump should save as an eye opener coz if we continu assuring ourselvs we wil b in the pool as Eritrea and the like.
The darkest Hour is just before the light, a change is about to happen in zambian football and we are that change bane
Chansa considering SA return
Posted: 2009-02-12 13:08
Former Orlando Pirates midfielder Isaac Chansa could soon be back plying his trade in the PSL.
The 24-year-old Zambian left Bucs two years ago to link up with Swedish club Helsingborgs, where he has impressed. This past season he started 20 League matches, scoring three goals, and also played in all their Uefa Cup games.
But according to his agent Ryan Hartslief, Chansa has grown tired of the cold weather in Sweden (some days the temperature reaches -15!) and, unless he gets an offer from another big European team, he is willing to return to South Africa.
“Yes, he is definitely considering it,” Hartslief says. “He has a year left on his current contract, meaning in six months he will be able to sign a pre-contract with another team. The weather is really getting to him so, unless some great offer comes from another European club, he is willing to return to the PSL.”
Asked whether a return to South Africa won’t be a step backwards, Hartslief responds: “Not really. The money is really good in the PSL at the moment and remember … at the end of the day it is a job.”
Hartslief says he is yet to receive any formal approaches, but reveals that he has spoken to a couple of clubs about signing his client.
“There has been nothing formal, but we have had contact with two clubs. As to where he ends up, obviously he loved his time at Orlando Pirates, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he will return to the club. We will assess the offers and take it from there.”
Ba Chansa, I think is just missing SA chicks. I dont blame you mwana.
Rubbish!! Big clubs in Europe? The weather is the same. Maybe Spain or Portugal. But France, Holland, England, Belgium etc etc same climate. Why come back to Africa? Its like moving from Ibex Hill to Misisi.
First & foremost fifa rankings are not made through guess work,i hapen to have magazines published by fifa yearly where they even show which captain voted for who & which coach voted for who for the world footballer of the year,coming to the rankings its a mater of how many points a team has acumulated from all fifa recognised matches,the team with the highest points is ranked highest,how do you expect zambia to do well on the rankings when we play teams like,tp mazembe,lubumbashi select,national asembly,just to mention a few,in addition even when you play a felow national team on the fifa day,its not a must that the match will be recognised,you have to meet certain regulations,eg if you use local match officials the game is for you not fifa.the rankings are just 100% fair & zambia is where they belong right now.anyone douting the ranking must seek for further help maybe i can share my december 2008 edition.
Ba Taj,
Good telling, ala twebeniko fwebena Zambia twachilamo ukuibikapo napotatulingile, bunda bwachisungu pakanwa. Solution is only through the following-HARDWORK,PROPER PLANNING,SPORTS INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENT etc.
The Zimbabwean coach afte playing Tanzania to a goalless draw her in TZ had this to say “Tanzania are a very good side but lack firing power and i rate them above Zambia at the CHAN because Zambia over-depend on their professionals too much”. Just hope he doesn’t swallow his words though when you think of CECAFA, you sense some element of truth in the statement.
Yaba, naba Zimbambwe baletumwenamo.
Ba Jaggari Zamfoot is correct on the names on the Pic.Are u a friend to Maiko Zulu.
Zimbabweeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, kwati nima zero yapa mane, better than us, eeh kwena natupwa.Just as well GTV(assuming it was going to show the games, knowing supersport won’t) closed, we could have collapsed watching our team being humiliated.
Chansa, go on holiday and sit everyday in the sun, see if that helps.
The slump has been ten years in the making, let’s restore the pieces that made Zambia once great, those pieces aren’t just run and gun!
The rankings are an eye opener.Faz is not the only org to blame for this down ward trend in our sport.Much has to do with the political will to succeed in which case we lack a minister with the passion to drive sports for the better the govt is toothless in this vain.Am disapointed to see us lose a life time opportunity to host the all african games once more,the blame being put on the ‘economic crunch’I can assure you that even if the so called crunch was not here the games wouldn’t have been hosted still.
The games would have brought a lot of benefit tourists would have trooped in not only for the games but e.g to see the big fall.think of the foreign exchange,the investments and the pride of hosting those games.
It all comes back to lack of planning,am sure such eventualiteis as the crunch should be put in to consideration when when planning in this case we didn’t.A good example is SA have even heard them considering pulling out of hosting the World cup?
The answer is no!thats coz they planned before considering to host the event.
So lets not continue pointing fingers at each other the govt is to blame as much as Faz has a share of blame.lets learn to plan and evaluate our decisions from time to time.
we can do better if only we do that.
Wada Wada, i saw your comment the other day, i have to say i agree with your view!!!
In order for things to improve, football needs to make money and support itself, and then it will be able to improve to the capacity it once was. There is a difference in that once it was public and now it is private, but that’s no reason why it should be worse off, we just need the people to be conscious and then they can make it work.
———Zambia were the worst droppers in the world yesterday.
WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT US??
Guys, I don’t understand why a lot of you are shocked by this news. The chickens have come home to roost, why did we expect anything else. We went to East Africa and were useless, we went to SA and didn’t manage a shot on target. When there were reports prior to the match saying that it was a FIFA sanctioned match what did we think that meant?! The reason that SA were making noise about the match being a full international friendly is because they new that it was going to have an impact on their ranking. We went there with a raw squad and couldn’t even count the number of subs that we had made?! What do we expect honestly?
Those of u who hav done law pliz napapata nw can i remove/impeach coz they ar nt useles bt worthles u heard dat we wil play chile china and whatever kalu clamed 2 hav conections bt he does hav his conectins brought me /us HR? Kalu kalu yo days ar few dnt think if blater knows yo name u ar great plus al of u faz charp muzungu anikonde type chose or u wil sink i rest ma case peace!
KMS alaiweeeeeee! Apakomaila nondo ninshi palichimo, tell you what it’s difficult to know what is happening with our country, too bad we cant get any favours from FIFA to strengthen our hope. Apa kunona chabe-NRC and Voters card, even if they finish the independence stadium tomorrow, judgment has been passed. Talent in all sports is there but no Multi facility infra structure to show it off at a fee; and alas most lamentably we failed to host the all Africa games when a tiny Rwanda could host a very colorful Youth Africa Cup. Eyes on the ball gentlemen don’t be diverted to start debating GMO, basanga baletaya! Asanga baletaya! Sports infra structure! Sports infra Ba Chipungu…………………..!!!!!!!!Eyes on the infra structure not GMO debate no, Mwanawasa said no, he also wanted All-Africa games.
Ba Jaggari seems to think and I quote ” serious football writers don’t give them much credence” i.e. referring to the Fifa rankings .I am not sure which serious football writers or pundits his talking about cause the likes of John Motson and Tim Caple are world renowned and I heard them refer to Spain in during the Spain vs. England game as the worlds best team and I am quite sure they did not dream this up but actually got this information from the Fifa rankings and have taken it on board but I will also go further and quote Fabio Capelo in his interview with the bbc
England coach Fabio Capello says his players can learn much from their 2-0 defeat against Spain in Seville.
England was outplayed for long spells, but Capello said: “I am happy because I learned a lot – I spoke to the players and we know what we must do.
“It was very difficult but we knew it would be because Spain is one of the best teams in the world right now.
“It’s important to know where we are, what level we are at and what we have to do in order to get better.”
but our local football analyst Mr Jaggari seems to think no one pays attention to the Fifa rankings I think he is the only one not paying attention to the Fifa rankings and I think we should all pay attention to the Fifa rankings because the British home office do not issue work permits to players who come from countries that are outside the top seventy in the Fifa rankings and this is becoming a trend in for the top five European leagues .So this is an appeal to all the people involved in the development of Zambian football and all the stake holders in Zambia lets win our fourth coming international football matches and restore Zambia’s name in the footballing world .I don’t mean to disrespect these countries but my heart bleeds to see teams likes Rwanda, Benin ,Sudan Uganda etc to be ahead of us in the Fifa rankings. And Jaggari I hope I did not come out too personal for your liking but you know when I discuss ZED football I may seem to loose it but I hope you understand.
come on FAZ , why didnt you organise a friendly this wednesday? Any reasons???
Ba Jaggari,
The US team you subjectively under-rate yet again beat Sven Erikkson’s Mexico 2-0 on Wednesday. Like i said, Mexico also on average perform far much better than any African side at the World Cup.
when i read the article yesterday,i was confused and came in very strong on fifa ranking’s.but after thinking so hard,i just came to realise that this shud act as a wake up call to our national team.our performance has really been below par,we hve not played quality friendlies.playing tp mazembe,red arrows and wont help us in anyway.the last convincing victory that zambia recorded was against south africa.faz should woke up and put things in place.our current rankings tell’s me that no english team will sign any our players becoz we not ranked among the best 50 teams in the world.
fifa deliberatly came up with fifa sactioned friendly day were all professionals are are allowed to go and feature in those respective matches.if faz find it diffcot with flight connections,y cant they take advantage of south africa which has easy flight connections.if nothing is done i see our team droping down again coz i dnt see zambia beating egypt,meaning we shall drop like 5 steps down again.
In as much as i wanted to console myself with the two victories over Angola, i noticed Angola lost again 0-3 (i think) at home on wednesday to a team i cant remember. So even the good we did was with another gonga. Awe bane, we cant go on pretending at things are ok with our team-blame not only the coach and FAZ and even ourselves as stakeholders. Solution is for all of us to get involved starting with our local teams and not just as armchair critics.
Anonymous #45, what are you trying to do, dont play with my name. What point are you putting across. Just behave yourself.
I totally agree with you WADA on this KALU CHAP,its like he is everything ,Instead of organising friendly games he goes to watch adebayo
in lagos.I can’t wait to see the chipolopolo boys putting on the copper
jersey which the KK-11 used.The jersey was very colourful and shinning.
AFRICAN FRIENDLY RESULTS
Cammeroon 3 -Guinea 1
Morocco 0- czech republic 0
Egypt 2 – Ghana 2
Nigeria 0- Jamaica 0
Rsa 0 – Chile 2
Turkey 1 Ivory Coast 1
Tunisia 1 – Holland 1
Angola 0 – Mali 4
Mozambique 2- Malawi o
Algeria 2 – Benin 1
Burkina faso 1 – Togo 1
Thanks Amos for the results.
Who was the coach at time of KK11 on the picture?I do not think we will ever have a team like that one from Zambia.I hoped we had found another Zambian team like that after watching Zambia crash South Africa in the qualifying match of African Cup of Nations 2008 but it has never been the case.
Ok Ba Anonymous its alright. I hear you brother. Lets keep on blogging.
I think it was “Sir” Zoom Ndhlovu at the helm at the time. Ba Liwana Alexander, the team that beat SA in the AFCON 2008 Cape Town match cannot come anyway near this team. I would only match Poulsen’s AFCON 1996 bronze team under Poulsen as the next to it (with due respect to the AFCON 94 silver medalist that were more spurred on by the fallen heroes spirits than themselves!!).
But this team in te picture above was the strongest Zambia has ever had. I agree wit Uncle Bobs.