Fifa ranking: Eagles climb six spots

Nigeria has climbed six spots upwards to hit
61st place in the Fifa rankings released

yesterday, though 12th ranked in Africa.
Super Eagles have been up and down in the
rankings having ranked 66th in January, 63rd
in February, 62nd in March and 67th in April.
The Eagles were unmoved in May as they
maintained 67th in the grading, but victories
in their international friendly matches against
Mali and Luxembourg last month ensured they
amassed 559 points to move up.
In Africa, the Nigeria national football team is
placed behind Algeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana,
Senegal, Egypt, Tunisia, Cape Verde, Congo
DR, Guinea, Cameroon and Congo.
Algeria moved one place up to number 32 in
the world, while reigning African kings Cote
d’Ivoire dived two places to place number 36.
Argentina and Belgium held firm to the first
and second spot in the world while Austria
returned to the top ten with Uefa Euro hosts
France moving up four places to 17th in the
world.
Slovakia and Madagascar were top movers.
The Europeans climbed eight steps to the
24th place, while the Africans rose 29 places
into the top 108.
The next world ranking will be published on 14
July 2016.
The three-time African champions Nigeria
could still face a very difficult 2018 World Cup
qualifying group even after the latest FIFA
rankings saw them move up by six spots.
It is widely believed that the top 5 in the
continental ratings – Algeria, Cote d’Ivoire,
Ghana, Senegal and Egypt – will enjoy a
better chance of making Pot A of the draw on
June 24 in Cairo, Egypt.
Next week, FIFA will announce the lucky five
top seeds.
The climb up the FIFA rankings was down to
the wins over Mali and Luxembourg achieved
by caretaker coach Salisu Yusuf.
The 20-teams still in the reckoning will be
drawn into five groups of four teams each
with the five overall group winners catching
the flight to Russia in 2018.