The Super Eagles have moved two steps up the ladder in the monthly ranking that FIFA will release on Thursday. At the moment, Nigeria has 616 points and places 45th in the world and seventh in Africa. Following last Wednesdays 52 matches played worldwide and another earlier friendly match involving Kuwait and Iran, 53 matches were put into consideration in the ranking which is yet to be released by FIFA. But Daily Sun, can reveal that Nigeria will place 45th position with a point haul of 626. In doing so, the country will overtake Cameroon which currently also have 626 points. But following its humiliating defeat by Portugal last Tuesday, Cameroon will lose 38 points thus having a total of 588 which puts the Indomitable (?) Lions in the 48th position. Cameroon has been over-taken by the quartet of Nigeria, Montenegro, Japan and Wales. Had Nigeria won the match against Mexico, the points would have risen to 639 making the Super Eagles to tie with Montenegro and placing a joint 44th position. Nigerias current position in the FIFA ranking is the offshoot of the devaluation of matches played before March 13, 2010. While devaluation of matches sometimes positively impact on the rankings of some countries as had happened to Egypt, Algeria Cape Verde Islands and Tunisia, it negatively affected Nigeria because the Super Eagles won fewer of the remaining 2010 matches that were considered. After the knocking off of matches played at Angola 2010 and the 5-2 defeat of DR Congo on March 2, 2010, the day Lars Lagerback was unveiled as Nigerias coach, there are just eight matches remaining for Nigeria. Out of these, the Super Eagles won only two all against teams with lower ranking. The average points obtained from those matches, like it is for other countries are devalued by 20%. Those obtained within the next 12 calendar months carry a de-valuation of 30% while matches that are one year old have 50% weight and those of the current year have full value of 100%. While Nigeria has a slight change in position and points accrued, its World Cup group opponents continue to float atop. Argentina with 1255 points re-mains South Americas best and third in the world. But its points dropped to 1234 following the drawn match with Romania last Wednesday. Bosnia Herzegovina remains the second ranked of the Brazil 2014 Group F teams. Although beaten 2-0 at home by Egypt, leading to a slump in points from 919 to 863, its total is still more than 200 more than Nigerias 626 points. Bosnia Herzegovina will however drop from 17th position to 20th. As for Iran, Nigerias first opponents in Group F, the team will drop from 39th position to 40th following its 2-1 loss at home to Guinea. However, the team still ranks higher than Nigeria. Cote dIvoire remains Africas number one. The Ivorians will have 839 points and followed by Algerias 819 points. Egypt will be third with 790 points. Cape Verde Islands will be in the fourth position with 739 points. Ghana places fifth with 729 points and followed by Tunisia with 641 points. Nigeria ranks seventh in Africa.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 20:59:31 +0000
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