Nigeria move six places up in FIFA ranking

Thursday, June 2, 2016 12:45 pm

Super Eagles

Nigeria’s Super Eagles gained six places up the ladder on the FIFA monthly ranking released early on Thursday.

The Eagles who were 67^th last month, are now 61 in the latest ranking. They also moved up to number 12^th on the African continent in the new ranking.

The new gain is coming after Nigeria made two victories in the international friendly matches played in the last one week. Only last Friday the Eagles beat Mali 1-0 in a match played in France, while they defeated Luxembourg 3-1 in another match decided on Tuesday.

On the continent, Algeria remained the top team while they are unmber 32^nd in the world. Ivory Coast’s Elephants and Ghana Black Stars are second and third in Africa and on number 36^th and 37^th respectively in the world.

Senegal (41^st), Egypt (45^th), Tunisia (47^th), Cape Verde Islands (49^th), Congo DR (52^nd) Guniea (55^th), Cameroon (58^th) and Congo (60^th) completed the Top 11 on the African continent.

Meanwhile, Argentina and Belgium held onto first and second place respectively on the latest FIFA/Cola-Cola World Ranking, while a flurry of international matches – largely among European teams focused on their final preparations for the UEFA EURO 2016 taking place from 10 June to 10 July – resulted in a number of shifts in the top 50 this month.

Forty five international friendlies were included in calculating the latest ranking, along with four 2018 FIFA World Cup™ qualification matches for the OFC region. Leading the changes were Colombia (3, plus 1) and Germany (4, plus 1) who leapfrogged Chile (5, minus 2) to reshuffle the order of the top five teams slightly.

Austria (10, up 1) meanwhile, returned to the Top 10 at the expense of England (11, minus 1) while elsewhere in Europe, Italy (12, plus 3), France (17, plus 4) and Ukraine (19, plus 3) all enjoyed positive momentum in the Top 20. Switzerland’s (15, minus 1) loss to Belgium on 28 May saw them slip one position into 15th, while Turkey’s defeat to England on 22 May cost them five places on the world ranking (18).

Northern Ireland secured 25th position this month, their best-ever performance since the official world ranking’s introduction in 1993. The ‘Green and White Army’ will be making their debut at the European Championship and last appeared in an international competition some 30 years ago at the 1986 FIFA World Cup Mexico™.

The top movers were Slovakia and Madagascar. The Europeans climbed eight positions to take 24th place, while the island nation located off Africa’s southeast coast climbed 29 positions into 108.

The regional composition of the Top 50 this month is: UEFA (29), CONMEBOL (8), CAF (7), CONCACAF (4) AFC (2), OFC (0).

The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 14 July 2016.