AFCON
Guinea Bissau pulls down Super Eagles in FIFA ranking
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Super Eagles came tumbling down the ladder in the FIFA ranking released Thursday morning. They are now number 40 in the world, falling down five steps from the previous 35th position three months ago.
Worst still, they have fallen out of top five in Africa, occupying the sixth position.
Their crash may not be unconnected with the home defeat inflicted on the team by far lesser ranked Guinea Bissau in Abuja last month.
Weight of opposition and the status of matches add values to the ranking of the respective teams.
In the past three rankings released, Nigeria had been on steady decline. They dropped from 32 in last year’s ranking to 35 in October and now 40.
Although they managed a penalty-kick assisted away win over the lowly Guinea Bissau, it did little to influence the Super Eagles’ ranking.
Prior to the face-saving win in Bissau, the Nigerian team had gone on five match losing streak, the first time in 42 years.
In contrast, good results by Morocco have seen the country rising steadily.
A good run at the World Cup in Qatar and excellent results in high profile friendly matches with Brazil and Peru have seen the Atlas Lions becoming Africa’s number one, pushing Senegal down to the second position.
In third position is Tunisia while Algeria and Egypt complete the top five in Africa.
