BTC premiership fails to match global league ratings

The Kick Algorithms (KA) global leagues ratings of 2020 have been released with regional neighbours South Africa, Zambia and Angola making the cut amongst top ranked leagues in the world.

The local BTC premiership failed to make an impact on the required scorecard for ratings.

The previous ratings witnessed Botswana elite league amongst the emerging leagues due to Township Rollers visibility in the continental champions league showpiece while this season’s downfall marked a downfall for the league.

The ratings are calculated on the basis of results of clubs competing in the continental club competitions while the national team performance also another key factor determining the rank.

With the BTC premiership low impact on the ratings radar, COSAFA nations that made the cut witnessed the Angolan elite league emerging 45^th while the South African ABSA premiership sitting on the 50^th and the Zambian league on the 55^th position.

The top ranked CAF nation is Tunisia placed on the 15^th followed by Morroco on the 17^th while Egypt is sitting on the 33^rd spot. Amongst the top ranked league is the Democratic Republic of Congo elite league placed 35^th.

The other ranked leagues in the charts include Guinea sitting at 82^nd while Kenya is placed 84^th. Neighbors Zimbabwe are placed 87^th and Tanzania 86^th.

While the results of continental club matches prove vital in the ratings, the other crucial factor is the number of players representing leagues in major football competitions such as the FIFA World cup and continental competitions such as the AFCON nations cup and EURO and CONCACAF competitions.

In the previous rankings conducted in June 2019, Botswana was ranked 30^th in Africa when Township Rollers was ranked 62^nd just above South African heavyweights Kaizer Chiefs which was then ranked 63^rd. This was due to Rollers exceptional performance in the CAF Champions League where they played past preliminary stage and competed against the best in the group stages.

However, the recent drop follows poor outings by both national team and clubs competing in the African club competitions.

With the Qatar 2020 FIFA world cup qualifiers scheduled to kick start soon, the Zebras were kicked out of the qualifiers in the preliminary stages by Malawi and currently placed third in the AFCON qualifiers scheduled for Cameroon in January 2021.

It was also a bad in the office for local clubs that were competing in the CAF competitions as Rollers were kicked out in the preliminary round of the champions league and Jwaneng Galaxy also failed to impress as they were eliminated in the preliminary stage.