The Lady Jaguars, Guyana’s principal women’s football programme has officially been removed from the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) rankings due to their inactivity on the international football circuit.
This was revealed yesterday on the FIFA website’s ranking system. The Lady Jaguars have been affected by a lack of international activity due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
They are currently unranked after being previously positioned at 88th in the prior rankings of March and June respectively.
According to the world governing body, national teams are relegated to the status of unranked or inherit a non-ranked standing if they fail to feature in several competitive matches or have not competed and are inactive for the duration of 18 months.
FIFA elaborated, “Teams not having played more than five matches against officially ranked teams and/or inactive for more than 18 months and therefore do not appear on the table.” Efforts to contact Guyana Football Federation (GFF) General Secretary Ian Alves for a comment proved futile. Several calls to his cellular phone went unanswered.
However, according to a source close to the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the current situation is a reflection of the times, as the Covid-19 pandemic has affected many international tournaments and matches. The source further said that the inactivity of the programme prior to the health crisis also contributed to the team’s current status, adding that the team’s dormancy unfortunately and eventually coincided with the spread of the contagion.
The Lady Jaguars previous fixture occurred against Barbados on May 28th 2018 at the National Track and Field Center, Leonora during the CONCACAF Women’s Qualifiers. The Lady Jaguars highest ever ranking was 76th and occurred in March 2017. Their worst ever placement on the world ladder was 92nd and occurred in December 2015.
FIFA World Cup champion and CONCACAF giant, the United States of America, maintain their position atop the rankings. The lowest ranked team is Mauritius on 159th. The FIFA Women’s Rankings was introduced in 2003, with the first table published July 16th. The next scheduled release of the rankings is pegged for December 18th.
