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Nigeria Rise Eight Places on FIFA Rankings

Written by Adeleke Afolayan

Wednesday, 02 July 2008

Following four wins from four matches in the first phase of the qualifying series for the 2010 World Cup and Nations Cup, Nigeria has been rewarded with a notable rise on the latest FIFA Rankings released today.

The rankings showed the Super Eagles gained 92 points in the month of June to gain eight places and hold 26th spot along with Sweden who went up four places on the rankings despite a first round exit at the just concluded European Championship in Austria and Switzerland.

In Africa, it leaves the Super Eagles as the continent's fourth best team behind Cameroun who are 13th in the world, Ghana who slipped four places to 20th and African champions Egypt that went down one place to 24th.

By virtue of this, Cote D'Ivoire replaces Nigeria as the fifth best team in Africa after falling three places to 28th on the world rankings.

Morocco is Africa's sixth best at 37th in the world and is followed by Guinea (39th), Senegal (42nd), Tunisia (47th) and the Stephen Keshi led Mali occupying 51st on the global rankings.

On the world, Spain's impressive performances in winning the European Championship resulted in them rising to top spot on the rankings for their first time ever, gaining a massive 254 points.

Italy replaced Brazil in second spot while Germany went up to third, leaving the Samba Boys in an all-time low of fourth position. Brazil is currently fifth in the qualiifying race for the World Cup in the South American region after a string of poor results including losing 2-0 to Paraguay and a dull goalless draw with arch-rivals Argentina.

The Netherlands however got some consolation for their football at the Euros, rising five places to fifth while their conquerors Russia moved up 13 places to 11th on the rankings; one place behind the French who fell three spots.

Surprise semi-finalists Turkey gained six places to occupy 14th spot, quarterfinalists Croatia moved up eight places to 7th while former world number one Argentina went down five places to sixth.

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