Stars rise in FIFA rankings as 2019 Afcon draw beckons

National football team Harambee Stars has moved two places up from its previous position in the latest FIFA rankings released by the world football governing body on January 12.

The national football team is now placed 87th on the rankings worldwide and 20th within the Confederation of African Football (CAF) region.

Placed at 77, Uganda remains till the best ranked East African side while Rwanda (93) Ethiopia (112), Sudan (133) Burundi (139) and Tanzania all trail the Kenyans.

Senegal leads the continent and is followed by African Cup of Nation (Afcon) champions Ivory Coast. Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria complete the top five list while 2015 Afcon finalists Ghana lies three places adrift at eighth.

The top 34 positions remained unchanged with Argentina, Brazil and Germany still holding first, second and third place respectively.

Despite the overall stability of the January table, two new teams have broken into the Top 50. Saudi Arabia (48, up 6) and Nigeria (50, up 1) move up at the expense of Albania (51, down 2) and Burkina Faso (53, down 3).

With the biggest move by both points and rankings, Suriname (128, up 22) were January’s best performer. Despite their recent improvement, the CONCACAF team are still some distance from their best ever position (84), recorded back in 2008.

The small Southern African nation of Swaziland, meanwhile, reached its best ever position in the FIFA World Ranking (99, up 1).

Meanwhile, Harambee Stars is set to know its group stage opponents in the 2019 Total African Cup of Nations qualifiers when the draw is conducted in the Gabonese capital Libreville later on Thursday night.

The Stars failed to progress past the group stage for the 2017 AFCON qualifiers after finishing last in a group that consisted of Congo, Zambia and Guinea Bissau.

The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 9 February 2017.