The Super Eagles of Nigeria have dropped four places to 45th on the latest FIFA world ranking released early today, with Germany maintaining world top spot and Algeria remaining Africa’s highest ranked nation.
Nigeria lost ground on the ranking after failing to qualify for the last Africa Nations Cup hosted by Equatorial Guinea and their 0-1 loss to Uganda in an international friendly match played recently at Akwa Ibom International Stadium.
In the ranking, Nigeria is ranked eighth on the continent, while Algeria maintained number one in Africa. Ivory Coast and Ghana placed second and third respectively.
Tunisia occupied the fourth position, Senegal is ranked fifth. Cape Verde Island and Guinea are ranked sixth and seventh positions respectively.
The world’s top 10 is led by world champions Germany, followed by Argentina. Belgium maintained third position while the two South America, Colombia and Brazil occupied fourth and fifth position, while the two European countries Netherlands and Portugal maintained sixth and seventh positions respectively.
Uruguay maintained eighth position as Switzerland and Spain completed ninth and tenth position in the World FIFA ranking.
A total of 135 new international “A” matches have been taken into account for the latest edition of the ranking, taking the total number of matches evaluated so far this year to 217. Of the new matches, 25 were qualifiers for EURO 2016, 26 were 2018 World Cup qualifiers (CONCACAF, AFC) and 84 were friendlies. The next ranking will be published on 7 May, 2015.
