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Nigeria: Team Shoots Up In Fifa Rankings
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This Day (Lagos)
3 July 2008
Posted to the web 3 July 2008
Lagos
The Super Eagles' run of four straight wins in the month of June has seen Nigeria move up eight places in the FIFA World Rankings to 26th position, as new European champions Spain shoot to the top of the rankings for the first time ever.
Nigeria's move means they leapfrog a disappointing Cote d'Ivoire into fourth place on the African rankings.
Cameroon not only kept top spot in Africa, but managed to keep their 13th spot on the world rankings. But Ghana continued to slide down the rankings, dropping four places on the world ranking to 20, although they kept hold of their number two spot in Africa.
The 2008 Nations Cup hosts dropped 2 places last month.
Egypt also held on to third place in Africa despite losing one place on the world ranking. But it was not the same story for Cote d'Ivoire, who dropped three places following a run of indifferent results in qualifying and has now been shoved aside by Nigeria.
Ghana's conquerors Gabon (74th, up 20 places) were one of the biggest movers in May along with the likes of Burkina Faso (64th, up 47), Cape Verde Islands (85th, up 24), Kenya (92nd, up 23).
World Cup 2010 hosts South Africa surprisingly moved up one place on the rankings, and Sierra Leone moved up a massive 26 places. Equatorial Guinea was the only one of Nigeria's qualifying group rivals to drop in the rankings, going down 10 places.
With positions on the FIFA Ranking to play a part in determining the seeded teams for the draws for the final round of Angola/South Africa 2010 qualifying series, it is imperative for the Eagles to maintain their unbeaten run till the end of the current campaign, which ends in October.
Meanwhile, Spain heads the FIFA world rankings after triumphing at Euro 2008 in style.
Rated fourth in June, it is the first time the Spanish have topped the list since the rankings started in 1992.
Former leaders Argentina have slipped to sixth after two disappointing draws in World Cup qualifying, while England have dropped six places to 15th.
Germany, as a consequence of their progress in the tournament, have moved up two places to third position behind Italy, who have risen one spot, despite going out of the tournament at the quarter-final stage.
Greece, European champions in 2004, suffered a big drop - from eighth to 18th - after failing to make it out of the group stages this time around.
Russia's surprise run to the semi-finals resulted in them surging 13 places to 11th, their best ranking in more than 10 years.
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The ranking system is based on international results over the past four years, with more points awarded for wins in major tournaments.
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