Digicel trio in CFU top ten

THERE HAS been no change in the Caribbean Football Union’s top-10 rankings for January, with Jamaica leading a trio at the head of the list that will contest next month’s Digicel Caribbean Cup Finals in Barbados. Jamaica, up two places to 47th in the FIFA Rankings issued this week, remain the CFU’s number one team, ahead of Trinidad and Tobago and Cuba and the three will join hosts Barbados in the February 20-24 Digicel Cup Finals. Trinidad and Tobago, the only CFU team still in with a chance of qualifying for the 2006 World Cup Finals in Germany, are ranked 61st on FIFA’s list, up two places from the December ratings. 

They stay second in the CFU ahead of the Cubans, who have climbed four places up FIFA’s list to 72nd following their elimination of the CFU’s fourth-ranked Haiti in the Digicel Cup earlier this month. The Haitians at 92nd in the world, complete the list of four CFU teams that hold a top-100 position in FIFA’s rankings.  St Lucia, who hurdled Barbados and St Kitts and Nevis in recent months to occupy the number five CFU spot, remain in that position, although they have dropped three places on the world list to 117th.

The remainder of the top-10 has St Kitts and Nevis, 119th in the world, in sixth position, followed by Barbados (121st) seventh, St Vincent and the Grenadines (138th) eighth, Grenada (148th) ninth, and Suriname (151st) 10th. Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz, who surprisingly exited CONCACAF’s World Cup qualifying series at the semi-final stage in November, kept fourth spot in CONCACAF, behind Mexico, who are seventh in the world, the USA (11th), and Costa Rica (27th). And Brazil continued to enjoy a solid rating as the world’s number one team, ahead of France, with Argentina third.  The Czech Republic are fourth, followed by Spain and the Netherlands.

CFU Rankings —  December (world rating in bracket)
1 Jamaica (47); 2 Trinidad and Tobago (61); 3 Cuba (72); 4 Haiti (92); 5 St. Lucia (117); 6 St. Kitts and Nevis (119); 7 Barbados (121); 8 St. Vincent and the Grenadines (138); 9 Grenada (148); 10 Suriname (151); 11 Antigua and Barbuda (153); 12 Bermuda (157); 13 Netherlands Antilles (163); 13 British Virgin Islands (163); 15 Dominica (166); 16 Dominican Republic (170); 17 Cayman Islands (176); 18 Guyana (182); 19 Bahamas (193); 20 Puerto Rico (194);
21 US Virgin Islands (196); 22 Anguilla (197); 23 Aruba (198); 24 Montserrat (202); 25 Turks and Caicos Islands (203).                           (CMC)