Flames in free fall, drop 7 places on Fifa rankings

Malawi National Football Team, the Flames downward plunge continued after they dropped seven places to 133 from 126 in the latest Fifa rankings on Thursday.

This comes on the back of disappointing campaign in the 2025 Total Energies Africa of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers and the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers.

During the period under review, the Flames accumulated 1117.42 points from 1137.83.

The Flames have been a pale shadow of themselves in all competitions having lost five in six of class A matches this year.

The latest 3-1 loss to Burkina Faso and 3-2 home defeat to Burundi in the Afcon qualifiers summed a disappointing campaign for the Flames.

Football Association of Malawi (Fam) Competitions and Communications Director Gomezgani Zakazaka attributed the team’s drop in the rankings to poor performance in the last six matches.

“We lost five out of six Class A matches,” Zakazaka said in a brief response.

Malawi are on position 40 in Africa and ninth in the Cosafa region behind Comoros, Madagascar, Namibia and Zimbabwe, among others.

The Flames biggest fall was when the team dropped 26 places in the world ranking from 133 from 107 in 2006.

But Malawi’s best ever ranking was position 53 in the world whereas the team’s lowest ranking was 138 in the world in 2008.

However, some soccer analysts have said Flames downward spiral is a big concern.

Sports analyst George Chiusiwa said for a long time, the country has dealt with the artificial signs of the problems while the deep-rooted challenges continue to thrive unabated.

“One may look at the inadequacies in the technical organisation of the game, substandard football facilities, defective club licensing, poor regulation of player development centres, unsound coordination and collaboration in promoting the game, disjointed football governance apparatus and lack of adequate exposure of the national teams to regular international football in between competitions as some of the underlying challenges that are not being addressed.

“There is urgent need to rethink the Malawi game in all these aspects of the country to make meaningful gains in modern football,’’ Chiusiwa said.

Malawi and Namibia are the two teams that have drastically dropped in the latest Fifa rankings followed by Ghana’s Black Stars and Equatorial Guinea who have dropped six places each.

Former Flames defender Elvis Kafoteka said there is a need for soul searching.

“It is very disappointing because this is where we are not supposed to be; there is a lot that we need to do. Flames should be treated as serious business. We need people that can bring something individually and collectively. National team is not for every Jim and Jack,” Kafoteka said.

Morocco are the top ranked team in Africa followed by Senegal and Egypt respectively. Ivory Coast and Tunisia are fourth and fifth respectively.

Reigning World champions Argentina remain the number one team in the world whereas France and European champions Spain are second and third respectively.

Since January this year, the Flames have registered five losses and one win in six matches.

The team finished bottom of the Four Nations Tournament held at Bingu National Stadium in March this year after defeats to Kenya (4-0) and 2-1 to Zambia.

Malawi beat Sao Tome and Principe 3-1 in the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers at BNS in June before a 1-0 loss to Equatorial Guinea in Malabo.

Meanwhile, these are the Flames results in six matches

Four Nations Tournament

Malawi 0 Kenya 4

Zambia 2 Malawi 1

World Cup Qualifiers

Malawi 3 Sao Tome 1