Eagles rise in FIFA ranking

Nigeria Super Eagles have made a positive progress in their bid to return to the elite ladder of global football as they have moved up four places in the world.

 According to the August edition of ranking released by World football ruling body FIFA, yesterday, Eagles rose up four spots to occupy the 53rd position, away from the July ranking that saw them drop 14 places to the 57th position.

However, the former African Champions, still remain 10th in the continent , behind Algeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana , Tunisia and others. Meanwhile, there was a change in this month’s ranking among the top three, with, Belgium (2nd, up 1) swapping places with Germany (3rd, down 1) behind leaders Argentina.

A little below them, Chile (10th, up 1) had entered the top ten at the expense of the Netherlands (12th, down 7). The loss of points by Germany and the Netherlands was due to the devaluation of last year’s FIFA World Cup™ matches.

 Further down the global ladder, the CONCACAF Gold Cup finalists had made good ground: Mexico (26th, up 14), winners of the trophy for the tenth time, had risen 14 places, while this year’s surprise package, Jamaica (55th, up 21), is now just outside the top 50 following a sizeable 21-spot leap.

In addition to the above teams, Albania (22nd, up 14), Malawi (98th, up 10), Sierra Leone (104th, up 7), Mauritania (113rd, up 15), Swaziland (132nd, up 6), Guam (146th, up 8) and Guyana (152nd, up 7) all went up by more than five places in August.

The following teams have achieved their highest-ever position: Wales (9th, up 1), Austria (14th, up 1), Slovakia (14th, up 1), Albania (22nd, up 14), Congo (43rd, up 4) and Guam (146th, up 8).

As the Cape Verde Islands (50th, up 2) and the Republic of Ireland (50th, up 2) are in joint-50th, there are currently 51 teams in the top 50, a group that now includes Israel (47th, up 4) in place of Japan (56th, down 6) and Serbia (66th, down 23).

 Consequently, the breakdown of teams in the top 50 per confederation now looks as follows: UEFA: 31 (up 1); CONMEBOL: 8 (unchanged); CAF: 8 (up 1); CONCACAF: 3 (unchanged); AFC: 1 (down 1); OFC: 0 (unchanged). Of the 29 international ‘A’ matches taken into account for this month’s FIFA Ranking, 26 were CONCACAF Gold Cup matches and the remaining three were friendlies.

 The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 3 September 2015.