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Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE has moved one place down the ladder in the latest FIFA rankings.

The Warriors are now ranked 108th in the world, according to the rankings released today. They also dropped two places in Africa where they now sit on number 26. They had remained stagnant in the previous rankings that were posted on May 27.

FIFA had to factor in all the international tournaments and matches played during the three-month period to come up with the latest rankings.

The Warriors failed to utilize the FIFA window for international friendlies in June but were involved in the COSAFA Cup in South Africa last month.

The team put up a disappointing show and returned home with no win after drawing two and losing the other two group matches.

Zimbabwe lost four ranking points and now have 1172 points. The rankings are expected to play a key role in the seeding of the teams for the draw of the AFCON 2021 finals.

The draw is set to take place next Tuesday in host nation, Cameroon.

West African giants Senegal remained the highest ranked team in Africa while Belgium lead the overall rankings after retaining the top spot in the world.

It has been a busy few weeks for the world of football. With UEFA EURO 2020, the 2020 Copa America, the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup, qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and continental tournaments, as well as friendly matches all on the slate.

According to FIFA, no fewer than 348 international encounters have taken place since the last edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola Men’s World Ranking was released.

Consequently, there has been a considerable amount of movement in the standings, although Belgium managed to retain their top spot despite being eliminated in the quarter-finals of the European Championship.

Their last-eight opponents and eventual winners of the tournament, Italy, moved up into the top five, just behind EURO runners-up England who were unchanged at number four. Just above that pair, Brazil and France swapped places.

Argentina reaped the benefits of a triumphant Copa America campaign as they moved up two places to sixth, while the two Gold Cup finalists, USA and Mexico, broke into the top 10.

A handful of other teams that did not take part in regional tournaments, such as Sierra Leone (106), Eswatini (146), Puerto Rico (171) and Mongolia (185), still managed to gain ground courtesy of positive friendly results. The next FIFA/Coca-Cola Men’s World Ranking will be published on September 16.