The Super Eagles’ recent victories over Liberia and Cape Verde have not been reflected in the latest monthly football rankings by world soccer governing body, FIFA, which left Nigeria stuck on the same position as the previous rating, megasportsarena.com reports.
The latest figures released by FIFA on Thursday revealed that Nigeria is a non-mover at 34th in the world and fifth Africa, even after the Eagles started their race to the Qatar 2022 World Cup with victory at home against The Lone Star and another away to The Blue Sharks.
Against all expectations, the three-time African champions remain stagnant in FIFA’s ratings, in spite of starting their campaign in the World Cup qualifies with a 2-0 victory over Liberia and a 2-1 road away to Cape Verde four days later.
Nigeria remain behind Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, while their group opponents in the race to Qatar 2022 – Cape Verde, Central African Republic and Liberia – occupy 77th, 124th and 144th positions respectively.
While Nigeria’s double-edge victories reflected on the Eagles’ total number of accumulated points, as they moved up to 1492 from 1479, the same did not apply to their placement on the log, as other countries also gained from nice results during the period in review.
On the other hand, the Eagles’ opponents in the group stage at next year’s Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon – Egypt, Guinea Bissau and Sudan – 48th, 105th, 127th respectively on the latest data from football’s headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.
In the global rankings the top five is made of representatives from Europe and South America, with Belgium leading the way followed by Brazil, England, France and Italy, ahead of the next FIFA World Ranking to be published on October 21.
