Super Eagles of Nigeria

Nigeria’s Super Eagles have moved a place up in the latest ranking released by FIFA today.

Nigeria are now 62nd best football playing country in the world and 11th best in Africa.

The island nation of Cape Verde is now Africa’s number one, as Ivory Coast suffered the biggest drop of points– 84 points–to lose Africa’s pole position. Africa’s best are 31st in the world, while Ivory Coast are now 36th.

Algeria and Ghana are third and fourth in Africa, but they are 37th and 41st in the world.

Tunisia, Senegal are 5th and sixth in Africa, but 47th and 48th in the world.

Egypt that Nigeria would meet twice this month are ranked seventh in Africa, but 53rd in the world.

Congo DR and Congo are 8th and 9th in Africa, followed by Cameroon in the 10th position.

Nigeria moved one position higher to 62nd in the world and 11th in Africa.

Other rankings in Africa: Guinea 12th, Uganda 13th, South Africa 14th. Mali are 15th.

The March edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking was marked by few changes in the top 50, with most teams yet to play in 2016. Only 14 ‘A’ matches were taken into account for March, all of which were international friendlies. The total number of games played in 2016 currently stands at 58.

At the table’s summit Belgium continue to dominate, while Argentina, Spain, Germany and Chile stay closely pressed to the leaders. Four-time world champions Italy (14, plus 1) meanwhile, recorded the only positive movement in the top 20 this month. Further down the table, Poland gained the most ground of the top 50 teams, climbing three places (31, plus 3) while Serbia (50, plus 1) re-entered the top 50 at Norway’s expense (51, minus 1).

While no team reached its best ever position in the March ranking, a few teams successfully held onto their best ever positions, namely: Belgium (1), Chile (5), Austria (10), Hungary (19) and Kyrgyzstan (105).

The most impressive movers for March were Venezuela and Armenia. The South Americans climbed 6 places and gained 57 points to rise to 75th position, thanks to an impressive 1-0 victory over Costa Rica in Barinas on 2 February. Armenia, meanwhile, enjoyed the biggest climb of the month (116, up 7). Closely chasing Armenia and Venezuela’s success were Israel (67, plus 6), Kazakhstan (125, plus 6) and Guyana (156, plus 6).

There were no shifts in the regional composition of the Top 50 for March and the distribution of the top 50 remains: UEFA (31), CONMEBOL (8), CAF (6), CONCACAF (4), AFC (1) and OFC (0).

Belgium, Argentina, Mexico, Iran and New Zealand held their positions at the top of their respective confederations, with the only change in leadership at the confederation level this month taking place in CAF.

The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 7 April 2016.