Nigeria beats Egypt, Cameroon, Tunisia in latest FIFA rankings despite early AFCON exit

Nigeria has moved up four places in the latest FIFA ranking after an early exit in the just concluded African Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2021.

Nigeria is currently ranked 32 in the FIFA ranking ahead of AFCON 2021 host Cameroon, finalist Egypt, and Tunisia who defeated the Super Eagles in the round of 16 in January.

AFCON 2021 champions Senegal is the best African team in 18th position, followed by Morrocco in 24th, and Nigeria in 32nd position. Egypt sits at 34th and Tunisia at 36th and Cameroon at 38th.

AFCON 2018 champions Algeria who were Africa’s number one slipped to 43, while Mali occupy the 48th position and Ivory Coast in 51st spot.

Other African countries in the top 100 bracket are Burkina Faso in 56th, Ghana in 61st, Congo DR in 66th, South Africa in 68th, and Cape Verde occupy the 73rd position.

Overall, Belgium maintained its number one spot, followed by Brazil in second, France is third, Argentina in fourth, England and Italy occupy the fifth and sixth positions respectively.

Spain is seventh, Portugal sits at eighth, Denmark is ninth and the Netherlands is in the 10th position.

FIFA said standings on the ranking named “SUM” relies on adding and subtracting points won or lost for a game to and from the previous point totals rather than averaging game points over a given time period as in the previous version of the World Ranking for all the countries.

The points, according to FIFA, are added or subtracted are partially determined by the relative strength of the two opponents, including the logical expectation that teams higher in the ranking should fare better against teams lower in the ranking.