It was a downward slope for the Super Eagles of Nigeria as FIFA released September rankings for male national team in the early hours of Thursday, Abbeylivenetwork.com reports.
FIFA on Thursday, October 6th released the latest performance rating of teams in its association and the Super Eagles dropped from 1504.7 points to 1498.47 points to maintain their fourth position ranking in the continent but dropped a place in the world to rank 32nd.
In Africa the Super Eagles are in number four behind 2022 World Cup bound Senegal (1st) Morocco (2nd) and Tunisia (3rd).
The slip up in the latest ranking by the Super Eagles may not be unconnected to their unimpressive display in last month’s international break.
After being held to a 2-2 draw by Algeria’s B team, the Super Eagles lost 2-1 to the A team.
Brazil (1st, -) embark on their bid to win a sixth world title as Ranking leaders. In beating Ghana and Tunisia in their two friendlies last week, A Seleçao widened the gap between themselves and their nearest challengers, Belgium (2nd, -), who lost to Netherlands (8th, -) in the Nations League. Argentina (3rd, -) complete the podium.
Just behind lie reigning world champions France (4th, -), followed by England (5th, -). The only change in the top 10 saw Italy (6th, plus 1) leapfrog Spain (7th, minus 1), who drop down a place.
There is more movement further down the Ranking. Croatia (12th, plus 3) rose three places, while IR Iran (20th, plus 2) moved into the top 20, followed closely by Serbia (21st, plus 4), who gained four places.
The biggest movers were teams who failed to qualify for Qatar 2022, namely Scotland (40th, plus 5) and Azerbaijan (123rd, plus 5), both five places higher. Honourable mentions should also go to Algeria (37th, plus 4), Georgia (78th, plus 4), Mauritania (103rd, plus 4) and Suriname (139th, plus 4), all of whom ascended four places.
