Eagles drops in FiFA ranking despite CHAN success
Nigeria now occupies 52nd position in the world and seventh in Africa on the latest FiFA ranking.
The FiFA ranking which was released on Thursday was the first after the 2018 Championship of African Nation(CHAN) where the Super Eagles finished second.
Eagles dropped from 51st in the world but moved forward to 7th from 9th in Africa.
Though Super Eagles lost a game during the month under review, but won four but FiFA said the accumulation of points from a specific period was considered.
As explained on the FIFA website, a team’s total number of points over a four-year period is determined by adding the average number of points gained from matches during the past 12 months; and the average number of points gained from matches older than 12 months (depreciates yearly).
Tunisia, Senegal, Congo DR, Morocco and Egypt are the top ranked African teams in that order.
Nigeria’s rivals for the 2019 African Nations Cup South Africa, Libya and Seychelles occupy the 77th, 99th and 192nd positions respectively.
Germany, Brazil and Portugal are the top three teams in the world, while Belgium complete the top five countries.
The Super Eagles World Cup foes Argentina, Croatia and Iceland are in the top 20; the South Americans are fourth in the global ranking, the Eastern Europeans 15th and the Nordic country 18th.
Nigeria and Iceland will clash on June 21 in a World Cup Group D match.
The next ranking will be published by the official website of Fifa, fifa.com, on 15 March, 2018.
See Top Ten African Teams
1) Tunisia
2) Senegal
3) Congo DR
4) Morocco
5) Egypt
6) Cameroon
7) Nigeria
8) Ghana
9) Burkina Faso
10) Algeria