The effects of the fallout between Jamaica’s senior Reggae Girlz World Cup players and the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), has started to set in, as the country continues to slip down the FIFA/Coco-Cola Women’s World Rankings, and now sit 42nd.
After achieving an all-time high of 37 and 1589 points in August, following the Reggae Girlz historic Round of 16 FIFA Women’s World Cup exploits in Australia, the country’s women’s programme slipped five places and now has 1543 points on the latest rankings released on Friday.
This follows 0-2 and 1-2 defeats to Canada, as well as a 1-2 defeat and 1-1 stalemate against Panama, followed by 2-2 and 1-1 stalemates with Guatemala, over the September and December windows. Their most recent fixtures in the February window ended in 1-5 and 0-1 losses to Chile.
By virtue of the slip, Jamaica’s women lost ground on Concacaf rival Mexico, who inched four places up to 31st on 1668 points. Other Concacaf teams United States slipped to fourth despite their Women’s Gold Cup triumph, while Canada inched one place up to ninth.
World champions Spain remains atop the rankings, with England, France in second and third. Germany (fifth), Sweden (sixth), Japan (seventh), Netherlands (eighth) and Brazil (10th), completing the top 10.
Other Concacaf teams, Costa Rica slipped one place to 44th, Haiti slipped two places to 53rd, Panama held firm at 55th, and Trinidad and Tobago inched one place up to 77th.
Meanwhile, Guatemala held firm at 80th, with Puerto Rico making a big move up 18 places to its best ever ranking of 85th, while Guyana and Cuba both slipped three places to 90th and 92nd, respectively, with El Salvador (97th), the other team from the confederation in the top 100.