The Super Eagles of Nigeria moved one step up in the FIFA World rankings to 52nd position in the world with 600 points.
This ranking gave Nigeria the 10th position in Africa.
The misfortune of the September rankings for Nigeria is the sudden emergence of Africa’s football minnows, Cape Verde Islands who were ranked 41st in the world and sixth in Africa.
Nigeria’s stagnant movement was due largely to the inability of the Super Eagles team to win a competitive match against lowly rated Tanzania. Tanzania are ranked 136th in the FIFA world rankings.
Algeria are number one in Africa with 927 points and 19th in the world, while Cote d’Ivoire follow in second position in Africa with 916 points which put them in 21st in the world.
The Black Stars of Ghana are third in Africa with 849 points which put them on 25th in the world, while Tunisia are fourth with 722 points. This put them in 36th position in the world. Senegal are fifth in the continent with 713 point and 38th in the world. Cape Verde Islands are sixth in Africa with 701 points which put them at 41st in the world. Cameroon and Congo are seventh and eighth respectively, while Egypt and Nigeria are ninth and tenth respectively in Africa.
At the top, Germany (2nd, up 1) have reclaimed second spot and trail leaders Argentina (1st, unchanged) by just 18 points. Belgium (3rd, down 1) complete the top three. Other climbers in the top ten include Portugal (4th, up 2) and Spain (6th, up 5), while Colombia (5th, down 1) and Brazil (7th, down 2) have lost ground. Spain’s re-entry after three months is down to two wins in qualifiers for UEFA EURO 2016, while Wales (8th, up 1) and Austria (11th, up 2) have achieved their highest-ever rankings, with the latter having already qualified for next year’s tournament.
The biggest movers in the top 50 are Norway (34th, up 35) and Cape Verde Islands (41st, up 15). A number of teams outside the top 50 have also made big leaps, namely Liberia (95th, up 65), South Sudan (144th, up 54), Nicaragua (95th, up 44), the Central African Republic (126th, up 42), the Cook Islands (166th, up 39), Georgia (110th, up 37), American Samoa (164th, up 35), Samoa (162nd, up 34), Finland (64th, up 28), Mauritania (89th, up 25), Antigua and Barbuda (83rd, up 22), Aruba (115th, up 22) and Burundi (113th, up 21).
The results of 149 international ‘A’ matches have been taken into account in the October edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, of which 48 were World Cup qualifiers in the CONCACAF (12), Asia (30) and Oceania (6) zones, and 75 were qualifiers for confederation championships in Europe (50) and Africa (25). The other 26 matches were friendlies. This takes the total number of matches evaluated so far this year to 668.
