Nigeria Content Online

Resounding
victories over Ethiopia in the Africa Nations Cup qualifying series and
another over Kenya in an international friendly match see the Super
Eagles move up just one spot in the latest monthly rankings released by
world football governing body, FIFA, yesterday.

The Eagles formerly
ranked 39th in the world are now in the 38th position while still
maintaining their ranking as the fourth best team on the African
continent.

Thus, the
expectation of some football fans that the 4-0 drubbing of Ethiopia and
the 3-0 victory over Kenya will translate into an appreciable leap has
been dashed.

The Black Stars of Ghana remain Africa’s highest-ranked team moving up the table to now occupy the 15th spot in the world.

Côte d’Ivoire, in
the 21st spot, and Egypt, in the 36th postion, are the other African
countries ranked ahead of Nigeria in the April FIFA rankings.

Meanwhile,
finalists at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Spain and the
Netherlands continue to stride clear atop the world rankings as they
maintain the 1st and 2nd spot respectively after recording victories in
their recent UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying games.

Significant movements

There was however
significant movements below as five-time world champions, Brazil clawed
back to third spot from her previous 5th position while Germany dropped
one place to 4th, same for Argentina that now occupy the 5th position.

Also, Italy
returned to the top ten after an absence of seven months as the Azzuris
leapt from the 11th spot to the 9th position.

There were also
some major movers in the top 50 of this month’s ranking, with Israel
(33rd, up 25), Belgium (37th, up 25), Albania (50th, up 23) and Algeria
(40th, up 15) making the biggest climbs of the teams in the top
half-century.

Four teams –
Montenegro (24th, up 1), Albania, Libya (58th, up 13) and Antigua and
Barbuda (100th, up 1) – are currently in their highest-ever position
since the launch of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking in 1993.

Ranking formula

124 international
matches have been played since the last edition of the ranking five
weeks ago, which has doubled the total number of games played in 2011
to 248.

Of these 124
matches, 50 were qualifiers for confederation championships (29 in
UEFA, 21 in CAF). The other 74 games were friendlies.

For the FIFA rankings, points are calculated on a match-by-match
basis using a formula which takes into consideration the result,
whether it was a tournament, qualification or friendly match, the
strength of the opposition based on their ranking position and the
strength of the region they are from. If a team loses, they receive no
points.