Zimbabwe have been placed in Pot 4 for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying draw after the disastrous defeats to Lesotho and South Africa which saw the Warriors tumbling on the Fifa rankings that were released this week.
The statistics released on Thursday by Fifa show that Zimbabwe fell seven places down to 129th globally and 38th in Africa, just short of equalling their worst record of 131 in 2016.
The Warriors suffered a deflating 2-0 loss against Lesotho before they were humbled 3-1 by South Africa in the World Cup qualifiers that were played in South Africa last week.
Consequently, they plummeted in the Fifa ranking which could see them drawn in a difficult group for the 2025 Afcon qualifiers when the draw is conducted in a fortnight.
The 48 national teams involved in the 2025 Afcon group stage draw will be seeded based on this week's Fifa World Rankings.
With Zimbabwe ranked 38th, they have been placed in the last pot, which means they will face any one team from Pot 1-3.
Pot 1 has the continent's best 12 teams in Morocco, Senegal, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Tunisia, Algeria, Cameroon, Mali, South Africa, DR Congo and Ghana.
Pot 2 comprises teams like Cape Verde, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Zambia and Equatorial Guinea, while big teams in Pot 3 include Libya, Kenya, Togo and Tanzania.
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Pot 4 has minnows including Burundi, Eswatini, Chad and South Sudan.
A worst-case scenario could see Zimbabwe drawn in a group with Africa's best ranked team Morocco, last Afcon finals' surprise package Equatorial Guinea and north African giants Libya.
The Warriors will know their fate in a fortnight's time when the draw for the Afcon finals to be staged in Morocco next year is conducted.
Zimbabwe will be returning to the qualifiers after missing the previous qualification process due to a Fifa ban.
The team, which last featured at the 2021 Afcon finals, is part of the 48 nations that will go into the draw on July 4 at the SuperSport studios in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Preliminary stage winners Chad, e-Swatini, Liberia and South Sudan will join the continent's 44 highest ranked nations for the group stage draw.
The 48 countries will be drawn into 12 groups of four teams each, with the top two teams in each pool qualifying directly to the finals.
The first two games of the qualification series will take place in the Fifa window of September (2 to 10), with two other matches in the window of October (7 to 15) and the final two games in the November window (11to 19).
Pot 1: Morocco, Senegal, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Tunisia, Algeria, Cameroon, Mali, South Africa, DR Congo, Ghana
Pot 2: Cape Verde, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Zambia, Benin, Angola, Uganda, Namibia, Mozambique, Madagascar.
Pot 3: Kenya, Mauritania, Congo, Tanzania, Guinea Bissau, Libya, Comoros, Togo, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Central African Republic.
Pot 4: Niger, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Gambia, Burundi, Liberia, Ethiopia, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, South Sudan, Chad
