The Eagles, formerly ranked 39th in the world, are now in the 38th position. Photo: FEMI ADEBESIN-KUTI
Resounding victories over Ethiopia in the Africa Nations Cup qualifying series and another over Kenya in an international friendly match see the Super Eagles move up just one spot in the latest monthly rankings released by world football governing body, FIFA, yesterday.
The Eagles formerly ranked 39th in the world are now in the 38th position while still maintaining their ranking as the fourth best team on the African continent.
Thus, the expectation of some football fans that the 4-0 drubbing of Ethiopia and the 3-0 victory over Kenya will translate into an appreciable leap has been dashed.
The Black Stars of Ghana remain Africa’s highest-ranked team moving up the table to now occupy the 15th spot in the world.
Côte d’Ivoire, in the 21st spot, and Egypt, in the 36th postion, are the other African countries ranked ahead of Nigeria in the April FIFA rankings.
Meanwhile, finalists at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Spain and the Netherlands continue to stride clear atop the world rankings as they maintain the 1st and 2nd spot respectively after recording victories in their recent UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying games.
Significant movements
There was however significant movements below as five-time world champions, Brazil clawed back to third spot from her previous 5th position while Germany dropped one place to 4th, same for Argentina that now occupy the 5th position.
Also, Italy returned to the top ten after an absence of seven months as the Azzuris leapt from the 11th spot to the 9th position.
There were also some major movers in the top 50 of this month’s ranking, with Israel (33rd, up 25), Belgium (37th, up 25), Albania (50th, up 23) and Algeria (40th, up 15) making the biggest climbs of the teams in the top half-century.
Four teams - Montenegro (24th, up 1), Albania, Libya (58th, up 13) and Antigua and Barbuda (100th, up 1) - are currently in their highest-ever position since the launch of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking in 1993.
Ranking formula
124 international matches have been played since the last edition of the ranking five weeks ago, which has doubled the total number of games played in 2011 to 248.
Of these 124 matches, 50 were qualifiers for confederation championships (29 in UEFA, 21 in CAF). The other 74 games were friendlies.
For the FIFA rankings, points are calculated on a match-by-match basis using a formula which takes into consideration the result, whether it was a tournament, qualification or friendly match, the strength of the opposition based on their ranking position and the strength of the region they are from. If a team loses, they receive no points.
Comments