Super Eagles dropped one spot from 48th to 49th place in the August FIFA Ranking released Thursday as the world football governing body introduced a new formula for the grading of performance in the Beautiful Game.
The three-time African champions who won just one match and lost two at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, remain seventh best football playing nation in the continental ranking with a total 1410 points accumulation for August.
Tunisia is on top of the African ranking with Senegal, Congo DR, Ghana, Morocco and Cameroon ahead of Nigeria in that order. Burkina Faso, Mali and Cape Verde complete the Top 10 of the African ranking for August.
Nigeria’s next opponents in the AFCON 2019 qualifiers, Seychelles is ranked 188th in the global ranking. The Island nation is 51st in African standing.
Interestingly, 2018 FIFA World Cup winners, France, climbed to the summit of the much-changed world ranking in the first edition of the global ladder since a new formula took effect.
Just three points, however, separate Les Bleus from Russia 2018 semi-finalists Belgium (2nd, up 1), while World Cup runners-up Croatia (4th, up 16) have equaled their record ranking position, last reached in June 2013. Uruguay is fifth.
England occupies sixth place while Portugal is seventh, Switzerland dropped two places to eight while Spain moved up one place to ninth position, with Denmark also tied on ninth place but with an inferior point difference.
Sweden (13th, up 11), and World Cup hosts Russia (49th, up 21).
Naturally, there are losses as well as gains, with previous leaders Germany (15th, down 14) among several sides to suffer for group-stage elimination in Russia. Poland (18th, down 10), Peru (20th, down 9) and Costa Rica and Iceland (joint-32nd, down 9 and 10 respectively) also slipped down the table on the back of disappointing World Cup campaigns.
According to FIFA, the formula, which was approved by the FIFA Council in June after a lengthy period of testing, ‘relies on adding/subtracting points won or lost for a game to/from the previous point totals rather than averaging game points over a given time period as in the previous version of the Ranking.
“The changes, of which there are several, include the fact that inactive teams now preserve their point totals, with no devaluation of older games. Points are dropped, however, from losing or drawing against weaker opposition, with the only exception to this rule matches in knockout rounds of major competitions such as the FIFA World Cup”, the statement on FIFA’s official website explained.
