Nigeria’s Super Eagles Still Number 52 On FIFA’s Global Ranking

By SR Sports/FIFA.com

As expected, there are very few changes to 2013’s first edition of the FIFA World Ranking of national football teams.
 With football tournaments having come to a halt in many places over the New Year period only 46 matches have been included in the ranking since December’s instalment, 18 of which took place in 2012, with the remaining 28 being played in the first half of January 2013.
arely 48 hours to the commencement of the African Nation’s Cup in South Africa,  Nigeria's national soccer team- Super Eagles-remain the 9th best team in Africa and 52nd in the world.
Cote d ‘Ivoire kept Africa’s top team while retaining the 14th position globally.
Algeria dropped three places to the 22nd position but remained Africa’s second best soccer team. The national teams of Mali and  Ghana occupied the third and the fourth positions.
The Chipolopolo of Zambia dropped five places in the latest ranking but remain the 5th best on the continent.
Libya, Gabon, Central African Republic and Tunisia completed Africa’s top ten.
There were no changes whatsoever in the top global ten, with Spain still holding a comfortable lead over Germany and Argentina.
Further down, two teams are now in their highest position ever, first is Ecuador, whose team reaped enormous rewards of some outstanding performances leading to 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ qualifying series to move up to  number 12 on FIFA's global ranking, and  finally Haiti, who are number  38th because of their successful qualification for the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2013.
Only two teams – Uzbekistan (56th, up 11) and Cuba (88th, up 12) – have climbed more than ten places since December.
With Libya (47th, up 7) and Panama (46th, up 5) having replaced Tunisia (53rd, down 8) and Egypt (54th, down 13) in the top 50, the regional structure has changed slightly compared to last month as CONCACAF now has one more team in the best 50 (4 teams) and CAF one less (7 teams). The number of teams from the other confederations remains unchanged (UEFA: 27, CONMEBOL: 9, AFC 3, OFC: 0).