FIFA Rankings: Nigeria Drops 4 Spots, Now World 37th

NIGERIA has dropped by four spots in the FIFA World Rankings and are
now 37th as a result of its unimpressive performance in its two Africa
Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers.

According to the September rankings released on Thursday on FIFA's
website, Nigeria now has 642 points as against 673 points it garnered
in the August ranking.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the African Champions
fell 2-3 to Congo and were held to a goalless draw by South Africa in
the 2015 AFCON qualifiers.

With the, Nigeria are now the sixth-placed country in Africa as
against the third place it occupied in August.

The 2013 AFCON champions are now preceded in Africa by Algeria, Cote
D'Ivoire, Tunisia, Ghana and Senegal which have 926, 879,701, 661 and
645 points respectively.

However, the first five teams in Africa moved up in the global
rankings as Algeria is now world 20th, Cote D'Ivoire 22nd, Tunisia
31st, Ghana 33rd and Senegal 36th.

On the global scene, there was no movement either into or out of the top 10.

2014 FIFA World Cup finalists, Germany and Argentina, have slightly
extended their lead over the chasing pack and remain unchallenged at
the top of the rankings.

They are followed in third position by Colombia, which has swapped
places with the Netherlands.

The Netherlands paid dearly for their 2-1 defeat at the hands of Czech
Republic in their opening qualifying match for UEFA EURO 2016.

On their part, Colombia equalled their highest-ever position, having
previously achieved third in July and August 2013.

Meanwhile in the top ten, Brazil (6th, up 1) and France (9th, up 1)
have gained ground, while Uruguay (7th, down 1), Spain (8th, down 1)
and Switzerland (10th, down 1) have each dropped a place.

However, this month's biggest winners are Guatemala, which three wins
in four matches in the qualifiers for the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2015 have
seen the team leap by 77 places to 57th.

The team's win against World Cup participants Honduras yielded many of
those points.

With Iceland (34th, up 12), Congo (48th, up 30) and Antigua and
Barbuda (80th, up 69), September 2014 saw the three teams reaching
their highest-ever position since the ranking was introduced in 1993.

According to FIFA, of the 141 international "A" matches taken into
account for this month's ranking, over half of them (80) are
continental qualifiers in Europe, Africa and CONCACAF.

``The other 61 fixtures were friendlies and this takes the total
number of international "A" matches played in 2014 so far to 526.
(NAN)