FIFA Rankings – Super Eagles Crashes Again

Daily Independent (Lagos)

27 July 2011

Super Eagles free fall on FIFA Rankings continued again with the team falling two steps when the July Rankings were released on Wednesday by FIFA. Eagles which occupies 40th position in the last Rankings released last month is now 42nd.

Super Eagles garnered zero points during the time in question due to its failure to play any competitive or friendly match.

Safe Cote d’ Ivoire and Egypt that retained their 14th and 34th positions respectively, other African countries experienced free fall in the rankings that was released on Wednesday. Cote d’ Ivoire is African number one ranked team with Egypt being the second.

However, countries such as Ghana, Burkina Faso, Senegal, South Africa and Cameroon did not fare better on the rankings. Ghana dropped three steps to place 36th with Burkina Faso dropping two steps to stand at 39th, five places ahead of Nigeria. Senegal also dropped three steps to place 46th with South Africa and Cameroon each dropping two steps to place 49th and 50th respectively.

At the global level, World and European champion Spain remained at No. 1 and the United States dropped six places to No. 30.

Netherlands and Germany rounded out the top three in the standings that will be used to help decide seedings in Saturday’s World Cup qualifying draw.

Brazil climbed one place to fourth despite only reaching the Copa America quarterfinals, while Copa winner Uruguay rose to fifth, its highest ranking.

Sixth-place England and No. 8 Italy both fell two places, but are assured of top seeding in their qualifying groups.

Portugal (No. 7), Croatia (No. 9), Norway (No. 12) and Greece (No. 13) completed the list of nine European countries set for top seedings.

France will be in a pool of second-seeded teams, which also includes 2018 World Cup host Russia and fast-improving Montenegro.

In the world rankings, Argentina stayed at No. 10 after it was eliminated in the quarterfinals as the Copa America host. Chile rose 16 spots to No. 11, and beaten finalist Paraguay climbed six to No. 26.

Copa America semifinalists Peru (rising 24 places to No. 25) and Venezuela (up 29 to No. 40th) made the biggest moves in the top 100.

Mexico won the CONCACAF Gold Cup last month, but fell 11 places to No. 20 after poor Copa America results with a young team of backups. The U.S. fell despite being the Gold Cup runner-up.

Asian Cup champion Japan heads its continent at No. 16. Elsewhere, 2022 World Cup host Qatar is up four places to No. 90.

A total of 175 national teams will take part in the 2014 qualifying tournament that will be drawn Saturday in Rio de Janeiro.

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