Uganda has climbed 7 places upwards in the January FIFA Coca cola gradings to rank 82nd in the entire world of 208 member countries.
Uganda with 411 points also emerges the best ranked country among all the ten member associations that constitute the Council of East and Central Africa (Cecafa). The previous rankings had put Uganda at 89th position. Rwanda is ranked second best in the region with 304 points, indicating a difference of 97 points between the two footballing nations.
The Uganda Cranes beat Rwanda in the finals to lift the Cecafa-Tusker challenge Cup in Dar es Salaam on December 10 last year. The rankings further put Uganda in the 18th position in Africa with Cote d’Ivoire (889) topping the continental list followed by Ghana (779), Algeria (734), Egypt (698), Senegal (625) and Nigeria with 612 points. Cameroon and South Africa tie in the 56th position in the world rankings with 551 points and are 7th in Africa.
Uganda (82nd) beats Angola (85th) by 6 points and better than Gabon (91st), the hosts of the Africa Cup of Nations finals. Uganda and Angola will again have to face each other in the World Cup qualifiers. Sudan, the only nation within the Cecafa region taking part in the CAN finals is third best in the region with 265 points. This is 146 points behind Uganda.
Kenya is in the 121st position with only 260 points; Ethiopia has 230 points in the 133rd place while Tanzania follows in the 137th place with 225 points. Others are Burundi (199 points), Eritrea (45), Somalia (43) and Djibouti which maintains the 198th position in the world with only 23 points.
(Rogers Mulindwa-Head of Communications, FUFA)
