Gambia
Female National Football team became the newest addition to the Women’s world
ranking, making their debut at 17 in Africa and 113 at the world stage in the
latest edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking released on Friday.
The
Gambia’s progress in this year’s women’s world ranking is the country’s
best-ever position achieved in her women’s football history, having played five
games against officially ranked teams (2 friendlies and 3 competitive) between
December 2019 and March 2020.
The
latest ranking means the Women’s Scorpions are doing better than 15 other
ranked nations in the continent and 46 others globally in Women’s Football.
In
September 2018, the Gambia made her first ever admission into the global
rankings by FIFA; gaining 30 position in the Confederation of African Football
and 158 globally after participating in her maiden continental senior
qualifiers.
The
Gambia’s rankings came on the heels of her international friendlies with Guinea
Bissau in a double-header while a proposed home match to Ethiopia failed to
take off after their counterparts turned down the invitation at the eleventh
hour.
The
outcome of both friendlies were a 1-1 draw in the first leg and a 2 – 1 defeat
to the host in the second leg, four days later.
Six
months later (18th and 22nd December 2019), both Gambia and Senegal football
federations agreed to a maiden Senegambia women’s football friendly but the
visiting Gambia team bowed to their neighbours in two defeats in four days.
Two
months later, it was a relatively better performance when the team participated
in the first edition of the revitalised West African Football Union (WAFU Zone
A) Senior Women’s football tournament. The Gambia made a group stage exit after
they managed only one win against their familiar opponents Guinea Bissau but
lost to Mali in their opener and Liberia in the third encounter.
The
tournament, hosted by Sierra Leone in the Cities of Makeni and Bo, was played
from 25 February to 7 March this year in which Senegal (currently ranked 11 in
Africa and 87 globally) was crowned champions with a 3 – 0 emphatic scores
against Mali (currently ranked 9 in Africa and 83 globally) in the final.
The
Gambia is expected to improve well in her next competitive outing when a new
date is announced for the next Africa Women’s Cup of Nations qualifying rounds.
The qualifiers were scheduled to start in March 2020 but the Coronavirus
outbreak forced CAF to postpone the activity till further notice.
