The Golden Jaguars’ recent struggles on the international stage, highlighted by poor campaigns in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers and the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup Preliminary Round, has resulted in a dismal FIFA ranking of 176th out of 210 affiliated nations.
This was confirmed by the world governing body FIFA yesterday following the official publication of the November rankings. The Guyanese remained unmoved from their previous ranking in October.
This was certainly influenced by their recent inactivity following an unenviable record of three consecutive losses spread between the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers and Gold Cup Preliminaries.
Guyana lost to St Kitts and Nevis (0-3) and Puerto Rico (0-2) during World Cup Qualification. In the regional tournament, the Golden Jaguars suffered an embarrassing defeat to Guatemala (0-4) in the first round.
Overall, the team has suffered four losses in their last five fixtures. Presently, the team sits on 958.87 points and is currently sandwiched between 175th Malta and ranked Caribbean unit St. Lucia on 177th.
Guyana’s best ever ranking was 86th and was achieved in 2010 while their worst position was 185th in 2004. Overall, Guyana’s average ranking has been 150th. The next ranking is set to be published on December 16th.
Unable to improve on their rankings as they are not scheduled to return to the international circuit until May 2022, Guyana is expected to slip further down the world ladder in the coming rankings.
The men’s FIFA World Ranking for national teams in association football is currently led by Belgium. The teams are ranked based on their game results with the most successful teams being ranked highest.
The rankings were introduced in December 1992, and eight teams (Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain) have held the top position with Brazil spending the longest at the top.
A points system is used, with points being awarded based on the results of all FIFA-recognised full international matches. The ranking system has been revamped on several occasions, generally responding to criticism that the preceding calculation method did not effectively reflect the relative strengths of the national teams.
The current version of the ranking system was first used on 16 August, 2018, adapted from the Elo rating system used in chess.
