Johannesburg – A country seemingly obsessed with Fifa rankings was up in arms this week when its national team moved not an inch after their most famous win in friendly matches.
It was a bitter-sweet week for South Africa, after world governing body Fifa announced Bafana Bafana’s win over Spain would count as an official “A” game, burying fears that it would be downgraded after the world champions had used more than the allotted six substitutions in that friendly on the 19th of this month.
Moments after this announcement, Fifa released the latest world rankings and, lo and behold, Bafana were still No61.
This came as a shock to many, not least those who’ve made it their business to use rankings as a sole yardstick to measure Bafana’s success or failure.
Others had, as we waited for Fifa to make a decision regarding the status of that match, ridiculously expected that once the points from that fixture had come through, Bafana would be ranked among the top 30 or even 20 in the world.
When the rankings were released on Thursday, all manner of conspiracies were thrown around, including the baseless assertion that Fifa had failed to add the points to determine the current ranking.
As if that was not enough, the SA Football Association added to the confusion by releasing a statement claiming the points garnered from the victory over Spain would reflect only next month, when Fifa will release final rankings for this year.
“We expect that the impact of the victory will be reflected in next month’s Fifa rankings as the ruling arrived on the date this month’s rankings were released,” a statement quoting Safa president Danny Jordaan said.
Yet a glance at the latest rankings shows that Bafana were indeed given 541 points for their victories over Swaziland and Spain. Either this escaped Safa, or they have been told something else by Fifa, although in the very statement quoting Jordaan, the world governing body made it clear the points have been added in the latest ranking. “The match shall be considered as an official match and is therefore included in the November edition of the Fifa/Coca-Cola World Ranking,” Fifa said.
This is as unambiguous as you can get, and we perhaps should assume Safa didn’t read this part, even as it was attached to their statement where they “welcomed” Fifa’s ruling.
I’m not sure if Bafana would have moved dramatically into the top 30 when the next rankings are released on December 19. What I do know is that rankings, in the grander scheme of things, don’t mean a lot, and perhaps some among us should refrain from elevating them to a level of utmost importance.
Yes, when you’re ranked higher, you get a chance to be seeded and escape big guns at tournaments such as the World Cup and the Africa Cup of Nations.
That, however, does not guarantee success. Bafana should know better because, for next year’s World Cup qualifying, they were the top-ranked side in Group A, but one defeat to Ethiopia – at the time ranked about 110th but since improved to 93rd – put paid to their ambitions of catching the flight to Brazil.
Similarly, for last year’s Nations Cup qualifying, Bafana were among seeded teams but in the end lost out to unfancied, lowly-ranked Niger, who made it to their first continental finals.
These are just but two examples of seeding not being an absolute guarantor of success, as proponents of a higher ranking would want us to believe.
Gone are the days when matches would be won merely by a team’s ranking – and that Bafana beat Spain, the world’s highest ranked team for the past four years, is indeed instructive in this regard.
Bafana will probably go further down, paying the price for not being in Brazil next year, but that shouldn’t dishearten anyone. They can only improve their standing if they qualify for major tournaments and do well in them.
Winning friendlies, as we cruelly found out this week, doesn’t mean you’re suddenly a world beater.
Now let’s stop our obsession with rankings and hope Bafana do well in the African Nations Championship (Chan) in January.
*Follow Matshe on Twitter @Nkareng
Saturday Star