Reggae Girlz end 2023 as top CFU team
ZÜRICH, Switzerland, (CMC) – Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz will end the year as the highest-ranked Caribbean Football Union (CFU) team in the FIFA World Rankings.
The Jamaicans are ranked 40th – down three places – in the latest world rankings from the apex body of the sport, making them the fourth-highest-ranked team in the Concacaf region, and one of five CFU teams inside the world’s top 100.
After finishing third in the Concacaf Women’s Championship with a 1-0 win against Costa Rica in July, the highlight of the year for the Reggae Girlz was a place in the FIFA Women’s World Cup from July 20 to August 20 in Australia and New Zealand.
READ: Jamaica 4 – 0 Haiti: Reggae Girlz qualify for back-to-back World Cups
Sandwiched between a pair morale-boosting draws against France and Brazil, the Jamaicans had a 1-0 win against fellow Concacaf side Panama in the group stage of the World Cup and reached the second round before bowing out when Colombia beat them 1-0.
READ: Reggae Girlz seek first-ever Women’s World Cup victory
The Reggae Girlz failed to earn qualification for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France when reigning champions Canada beat them 4-1 on aggregate in Concacaf qualification in September.
READ: Reggae Girlz fall short in Olympic bid – lose to Canada in second leg
Further success eluded the side in the last quarter of the year because of an alleged dispute with the Jamaica Football Federation when a depleted unit attended the Pan Am Games and failed to get them into the Concacaf Women’s Gold Cup.
READ: Reggae Girlz out of next year’s CONCACAF W Gold Cup
Most of the other CFU teams were active in qualification tournaments in the confederation and this either helped or hurt their rankings.
The other four CFU teams in the FIFA top 100 are Haiti up one place and ranked at 51st (sixth in Concacaf); Trinidad & Tobago down three spots at 78th (eighth in Concacaf); Guyana down two places at 87th (10th in Concacaf); and Cuba up six spots at 89th (11th in Concacaf).
The CFU top 10 in the world is rounded by Puerto Rico unchanged at 103rd (12th in Concacaf); Dominican Republic down one spot at 107th (14th in Concacaf); Suriname unchanged at 132nd (17th in Concacaf); St Kitts & Nevis down seven spots at 138th (18th in Concacaf); and Bermuda up three spots at 143rd (19th in Concacaf).
St Lucia dropped five places to 155th in the world to sit at the foot of the Concacaf top 20 list.
The Reggae Boyz were also ranked the top CFU team for 2023.
