Nigeria remain 42nd on FIFA ranking

Despite the Super Eagles’ failure to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, Nigeria remained on the 42nd spot in FIFA world ranking released on Thursday.

The national team also retained the ninth position among African teams.

The Eagles had dropped five places to 42nd on the previous FIFA ranking for the month which was released on October 23. But the country will slip further if they stay idle without quality international matches from now and through the 2015 Nations Cup.

Though they lost three spots to 18th globally, Algeria remain number one in Africa. They are followed by Tunisia, which went nine places up to 22nd in the world; and Cote d’Ivoire, which gained one spot up to 24th.

Senegal went up six places to become 35th in world and fourth in Africa; Ghana are fifth in Africa, even though they fell two positions to 37th; Guinea moved 17 places to claim the 38th position in the world and sixth in Africa.

The seventh and eighth positions in Africa are filled by Cape Verde, which went six places down to 39th, and Cameroon, which went down one place down to 41st position, respectively. Both South Africa and Congo, who qualified from Nigeria’s Group A in the qualifiers for AFCON billed for Equatorial Guinea in January, went up the FIFA ranking.

South Africa shot six places up to the 51st position; while Congo went three spots up to the 59th position.

There were no changes in the first six spots on the FIFA ranking.

World champions, Germany retained the number one position, followed by Argentina in the second position, and Colombia in the third.

Belgium remained fourth; Netherlands fifth; and Brazil sixth. Portugal went two places up to share the seventh position with France, while Spain went one spot up to the ninth position, while Uruguay took the 10th position, having dropped two places.

On the women’s ranking, USA maintained the number one spot, while Germany remained second, and Japan third.

Nigeria’s Falcons fell one place to 35th position in the world, even though they remained number one in Africa.

All the African women football teams lost places on the latest ranking, with Ghana, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and South Africa, taking the second, third, fourth and fifth positions in Africa, respectively.