FIFA ranking: Super Eagles drop to 57th in world; 10th in Africa

 The latest rankings released by the world football governing body, FIFA, Thursday, has seen the country’s national team, the Super Eagles, drop 14 places to now occupy the 57th position.

The position is the worst for the Super Eagles team in recent times from having occupied the 5^th position back in 1994.

Though the Super Eagles recorded a 2-0 win over Chad in the period under review, it did not in any way help the ranking of the three-time African champions who now occupy 10th position in Africa.

Algeria, who are 19th in the world, remain the highest ranked team in Africa while Ivory Coast, Ghana Tunisia , Senegal , Cameroon, Congo, Cape Verde and Egypt are all placed above Nigeria.

Meanwhile, Argentina are the new top team on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. Despite losing to Chile on penalties in the final of the Copa América, the Albiceleste have leapfrogged over Belgium and Germany to take the top spot in the world ranking for the first time in seven years.

Chile, who emerged Champions in the South America tournament, moved up eight positions; only just missing out on a top-ten ranking at number 11.

As explained by FIFA, the volatility of the ranking this month is due in part to the many matches that have been played: with 26 Copa América matches, 99 qualifying matches for the World Cup or continental tournaments, and 88 friendlies, the number of matches taken into account has almost doubled the amount for the year so far (477 matches in total). The world football governing body said that the other reason is that the matches from last year’s World Cup have been devalued.