PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz have leapfrogged Trinidad and Tobago to claim top spot in the Caribbean Football Union rankings, following their unbeaten run in the recently concluded Digicel Caribbean Cup.
In the latest FIFA rankings released yesterday, Jamaica jumped 24 spots to overhaul the previous leaders who incidentally fell 11 places due to their flop in the same tournament.
Jamaica marched through the Digicel Caribbean Cup Finals in Martinique without dropping a game, before beating Guadeloupe in the championship game to successfully defend their title.
T&T, meanwhile, suffered losses to Cuba and Grenada during the group phase, to bow out of contention for the semi-finals.
Jamaica are now ranked 58th overall in the FIFA rankings while T&T have slipped to 89th and third in CFU.
Cuba were the biggest movers in CFU, however, as they also overhauled T & T to move into second. In the FIFA rankings, the Cubans jumped 32 spots on the backs of their outstanding performance in the Digicel Cup where they played unbeaten to reach the semi-finals.
Haiti continued their upward movement to secure fourth spot in CFU, after rising another 11 places in the FIFA rankings to be 90th but Guyana eroded their gains made last month by crashing 23 places.
In the intervening period, they lost all three games played and are now seventh in CFU behind the fifth placed Grenada, who fell three spots in the overall rankings, and the sixth placed Antigua and Barbuda, who rose nine.
Barbados also suffered in the latest rankings, crashing 11 places in the FIFA rankings to 131st to be 11th in CFU.
(FIFA rankings in brackets)
1 Jamaica (58)
2 Cuba (62)
3 Trinidad and Tobago (89)
4 Haiti (90)
5 Grenada (94)
6 Antigua and Barbuda (106)
7 Guyana (109)
8 Suriname (115)
9 St. Kitts and Nevis (121)
10 Dominica (129)
11 Barbados (131)
12 Puerto Rico (133)
13 St. Vincent and the Grenadines (142)
14 Netherlands Antilles (151)
15 Cayman Islands (157)
16 Dominican Republic (168)
17 Bermuda (175)
18 British Virgin Islands (176)
19 St. Lucia (181)
20 Turks and Caicos Islands (187)
21 Bahamas (194)
22 Aruba (199)
23 US Virgin Islands (200)
24 = Anguilla (203)
24 = Montserrat (203)