African Champion, Nigeria moved up10 places in the latest FIFA rankings released on Thursday, to become the third best football team in Africa.
The Super Eagles, who were eliminated in the preliminary round, garnered 660 points and moved up 10 spots to 34th as against their previous 631 points which left them 44th position in June.
Algeria, who got to the second round of the World Cup for the first time in their history, has 874 points to occupy the 24th position in the world and be the best team in Africa, while Cote d’Ivoire has 850 points for 25th place in the world and consequently dropped to second in the continent.
The Black Stars of Ghana, slipped down by one spot to 38th in the world and fifth in Africa, behind Egypt, who remained static with 645 points.
Tunisia, Guinea, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Mali make up the top 10 in Africa in that order.
On the global scene, 2014 World Cup winners, Germany, as expected, are in number one on the rankings for the first time in 20 years with 1,724 points, reaping the reward of their fourth triumph at the expense of Argentina, who are second on the list with 1,606 points.
Third-place finishers, Netherlands, have moved 12 positions up the table and are now third in the world with 1,496 points while Brazil, has dropped four places to the seventh position.
South Africa 2010 World Cup winners, Spain, have fallen from the top spot to eighth place, while Portugal are now 11th, down by seven spots, and Italy, 14th, down by five spots, while England is now placed 20th, down by 10 spots.
Criteria for arriving at a country’s placing/position on the monthly rankings are determined by the result(s) and number of matches placed by a particular country in the month under review.
FIFA, in a statement, said that the results of 111 international “A” matches have been taken into account for the current edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.
“Sixty-four out of these matches were played at the World Cup in Brazil, 46 were friendlies and one was a CONCACAF continental qualifier. The total number of international “A” matches taken into account so far this year is now 362”, the FIFA Media Office said in a statement.
