The Nigeria national football team, the Super Eagles, continued their free fall on the monthly FIFA
Rankings as they dropped seven places in the last edition for the year, released Thursday by the world
football governing body.
The Eagles, who were formerly ranked 59th in the world before the double-header against Swaziland,
have now dropped to 66th spot in the December rankings released on Thursday.
The latest ranking, which qualifies as one of the worst ever for Nigeria in recent times, saw the likes
of Uganda, Panama and the United Arab Emirate (U.A.E) all ranked above the three-time African
champions.
Though previously termed ‘inconsequential’, Nigeria football officials are presently keen to see the
Eagles improve on the FIFA rankings as the rating will influence the draws for the final stage of the
World Cup qualifiers in Africa.
Meanwhile, AFCON 2015 champions, the Elephants of Ivory Coast, are still Africa’s number 1 best
team followed by Algeria, Ghana, Cape Verde, Tunisia, Senegal, Congo, Guinea, Egypt and
Cameroon who complete the roster of top 10 countries on the continent.
Also, the first-place finish on the last ranking of the year sees Belgium claim the Team of the Year
award for 2015.
As stated by the world football governing body, the December edition of the FIFA Rankings was
dominated by 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia qualifiers.
Of the 137 matches taken into account for the latest ranking more than two thirds (92 games) were
World Cup qualifiers; eight of the 137 games were playoff matches to determine the final four teams
to qualify for EURO 2016, and the remaining 37 matches were international friendlies.
The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 7 January 2016.
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