Sports
Nigeria Moves 4 Places In FIFA Ranking – 44th, 3rd In Africa
Nigeria moved four places in the recent FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking released on October 25, 2018, now ranks 44th in the world and 3rd in Africa.
Nigeria trails behind 22nd placed Tunisia and Africa’s number one, and Senegal – 25th in the world and second in the continent.
The Super Eagles has witnessed a steady rise under the Franco-German tactician, Gernot Rohr, haven sealed its place in the first fifty countries in the world for about two years.
Meanwhile, Belgium is now top on the list after edging out France to clinch the position.
Last month, Belgium joined France in becoming the Ranking’s first-ever joint leaders.
Now the Red Devils are in sole possession of top spot, albeit by the narrowest possible margin – 1733 Ranking points to Les Bleus’ 1732.
The top two remain out in front after a month in which each of them enjoyed a win and a draw, with Belgium and France beating Switzerland (8th, unchanged) and Germany (14th, down two) respectively in the UEFA Nations League and emerging with honours even from matches against the Netherlands (15th, up 2) and Iceland (36th, unchanged).
The Dutch rose on the back of a fine 3-0 Nations League win over their struggling German rivals, and other sides also profited from their success in the same competition.
England (5th, up 1), for example, swapped places with Uruguay (6th, down 1) after winning 3-2 away to Spain (9th, unchanged), while Norway (48th, up 4) moved into the top 50 after back-to-back victories and Russia (41st, up 5) maintained recent momentum by staying top of Group 2.
Gibraltar (190th, up 8), though, were undoubtedly October’s biggest Nations League success story, and their first-ever competitive wins against Armenia (101, down 1) and Lichtenstein (182, down 4) are reflected in a record Ranking position – and this month’s biggest rise.
The Gibraltarians are one of just six teams to have ascended more than five places, and the only team in Europe to have done so.
The others all hail from Africa, where Egypt (58, up 6), Madagascar (100, up 6), Namibia (109, up 7), Zimbabwe (110, up 7) and Burundi (142, up 6) made significant gains on the back of strong results in CAF Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 29 November 2018.
See the Men’s Ranking of 25 October 2018
Rank Team
1 Belgium
2 France
3 Brazil
4 Croatia
5 England
6 Uruguay
7 Portugal
8 Switzerland
9 Spain
10 Denmark
11 Colombia
12 Argentina
13 Chile
14 Germany
15 Netherlands
16 Mexico
17 Sweden
18 Wales
19 Italy
20 Peru
21 Poland
22 Tunisia
23 USA
24 Austria
25 Senegal
26 Romania
27 Ukraine
28 Slovakia
29 Venezuela
30 Iran
31 Paraguay
32 Bosnia and Herzegovina
33 Republic of Ireland
34 Northern Ireland
35 Serbia
36 Iceland
37 Costa Rica
38 Turkey
39 Montenegro
40 Scotland
41 Russia
42 Australia
42 Greece
44 Nigeria
45 Bulgaria
46 Congo DR
47 Morocco
48 Czech Republic
48 Norway
50 Japan
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