The recent COSAFA Castle Cup has provided a significant boost to a number of Southern African nations in the latest FIFA World Rankings.

Winners South Africa moved up just a single place to number 67 and remain the highest-ranked COSAFA side on the FIFA list.

But Swaziland saw a significant jump of 14 places to number 103 as they seek to break into the top 100 for the first time since the rankings began in 1993. The Swazis finished third at the COSAFA Castle Cup, beating Madagascar, Seychelles and DR Congo along the way, to go with draws against Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Hosts Namibia also moved up 11 places to number 124 after they technically went through the tournament unbeaten, their quarterfinal ‘loss’ to Botswana actually going down as a draw in the record books after it needed to be decided via penalty shoot-out.

Lesotho climbed four places to number 151 and Zimbabwe three to number 112. Mozambique jumped one place to 96.
There were some teams who lost ground though. Botswana dropped two places (to number 89) despite making the final, while Zambia fell nine (to 88), Angola 14 (to 137), Madagascar 23 (to 131) and Malawi 26 (to 133).