BARBADOS’ football match against Ghana at the end of the month has been cancelled, robbing the island of a chance to move further up on the FIFA World Football Rankings.

Ghana are ranked at No. 59 in the world, and a win or draw against the West African nation would have elevated Barbados into the top 70.

Barbados were scheduled to play the African nation on March 30 at the National Stadium, one week after their overseas game against the Reggae Boyz in Jamaica.

“We were originally going to benefit from Ghana playing here as a result of them coming through the Latin American countries on a tour,” said president of the Barbados Football Association Ronald Jones.

“As a result of several cancellations in these Latin American countries for various reasons, Ghana called off their proposed trip and consequently the visit to Barbados.

“We are disappointed by the turn of events as we were preparing to host the first ever West African nation to play football on local soil, and also I know the players and management team of the Barbados squad were anxious to play against them,” said Jones.

Last month, senior national coach Kenville Layne, now on a five-month training course in Germany, said that he wanted Barbados to win both international friendlies against Jamaica and Ghana.

“One of my personal goals was to get Barbados ranked at No. 70 or higher on the FIFA list. If we were to make it to No. 70 it would make it much easier for our players to get overseas professional contracts,” he said.

Barbados is currently rated at No. 93 in the world.

Barbados oppose Jamaica on Sunday night at Jamaica’s National Stadium in Kingston.