I don’t care says Grant

…Chipolopolo gaffer says FIFA rankings are not important

CHIPOLOPOLO Coach Avram Grant says he doesn’t care about the FIFA rankings as they are not important.

The Chipolopolo dropped three places on the latest Coca-Cola FIFA Rankings which were unveiled last month.

The Chipolopolo dropped to 87th in the World from 84th following their poor performance at the AFCON where they failed to go past the group stage.

And after starting the Four Nations tournament taking place in Malawi with a disappointing 6-5 penalty shootout defeat to rivals Zimbabwe after a 2-2 draw, Zambia may drop further on the rankings.

However, Grant said losing the position on the rankings is not important for the Chipolopolo boys.

Speaking in a post-match interview after the Chipolopolo recorded defeat in the Zambezi derby, Grant said his focus is on preparing a team that will compete in the World Cup Qualifiers and the Africa Cup qualifiers scheduled for later this year.

“To be honest I don’t care about FIFA rankings. We will be where we are today or we will be three places away and this is not important. For us the Four Nations tournament is the last preparation before the qualifiers for the world cup and the Africa Cup and we cannot test anything after this so the rankings are not important,” Grant said.

“What is important is for us to qualify again for the Africa Cup because we did it after a long time and we will try our best in a very tough group of the World Cup Qualifiers so our target is not the FIFA rankings but our target is to present a good team in June during the World Cup qualifiers,” he said.

He said Zambia has so far learnt a lot from the defeat to Zimbabwe who staged a perfect comeback after conceding two early goals before forcing a 2-2 stalemate to win the derby via penalties.

Grant said the Zambezi derby showed him where the Chipolopolo needs to improve after conceding easy goals.

“It was a good game for both of us. We started very well. We were leading 2-0 then we conceded easy goals. In the second half we had a few chances which we missed then we lost through penalties but the game was a good game,” Grant said.

“I saw a lot of good things from my team, few new players who we will know how to use them but when it comes to penalties everyone can win but the target of the tournament is to test and see new things. Things that can help us going forward and I’ve seen a lot of good things and things we need to improve,” he said.

After loosing to Zimbabwe on Saturday, the Chipolopolo will tomorrow face Malawi in the third and fourth play off of the Four Nations tournament.