The country is ranked 147 for the month of July, levelled on 1053 points with Honkong and moving above African rivals Liberia and Botswana.
The latest improvement is a direct result of the outcome of the Scorpions training camp in Antalya, Turkey, in June where it won two matches against Togo and Niger.
“It’s the same position with Honkong and its always good to move in the right direction.
We’d have moved faster but the changes in the FIFA Rankings mean we move very slowly. In three years, we have had 10 victories and five draws against top opponents and we have moved from 172 position to 148; that represents a movement of 25 places.
In the past we’d have moved 40 to 50 positions but I’m very satisfied,” Head Coach Tom Saintfiet told www.gambiaff.org in his reaction to the latest upward movement.
With the next FIFA international window to starting on August 30 to September 8.
The Gambia Football Federation (GFF) has concluded preparations for the Scorpions to host another training camp in Comoros, maiden African Cup of Nations finalists like The Gambia.
The Scorpions will play two friendly internationals with the hosts and Seychelles.
Speaking further, the Belgian stressed the importance of taking these friendly internationals seriously in order to get good results.
“We should try to get good results against Seychelles and Comoros. We need to play to win these matches to improve our FIFA Rankings,” he asserted.
The Saint, who became Gambia’s most successful coach when he guided the Scorpions to a first AFCON finals in nearly 70 years since the formation of association football in The Gambia will represent the country at next week’s African Cup of Nations draw in Cameroon.
He will be accompanied by the Team Manager Ousman ‘Cho’ Drammeh.
The Gambia is in Pot 4 of the draw despite winning its qualifying group ahead of fellow qualifiers Gabon and traditional African powerhouses the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.
“We are in pot four of the draw for the AFCON even though we won our group but that’s based on the fact that we are one of the lowest ranked sides in the competition.
So it’s so important to improve our FIFA Rankings step by step which will be beneficial to us for future qualifications and future AFCON,” he concluded.
Source-GFF
