… Soca Warriors slip six places

GUYANA moved one place up the latest FIFA World Rankings, which were released yesterday by the football’s world governing body.
Having reached their highest ranking (86) in 2010, Guyana were ranked at 165 by FIFA in last month’s ranking and despite playing a number of International Friendlies this year, the results of those games failed to impact the rankings.

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.

Guyana will face Indonesia (160) tomorrow, at the Patriot Chandrabhaga Stadium, in Bekasi, West Java in a game which was announced as an International Friendly by FIFA.
Meanwhile, the Trinidad and Tobago National Senior Team slipped six spots after failing to win 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.
Only one of Trinidad and Tobago’s last two outings were considered full internationals and counted towards the rankings though.

According to www.wired868.com, 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 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 benefited Trinidad and Tobago is another story.

Grenada, who drew 2-2 with the Warriors, dropped three places to 160th.