Rohr Halts Nigeria’s Slide in September FIFA Rankings

Duro Ikhazuagbe
After the free fall of the Super Eagles in FIFA Rankings in the last couple of months, Nigeria rallied back to step up three places in the September grading released yesterday by the world football governing body.

Nigeria is now 64th in the world from the 67th ranking of the previous month. Eagles are now 14th in the continent.

Football pundits were unanimous in giving the credit for the move to new Eagles new Franco-German coach, Gernot Rohr who claimed victory in-charge of the senior Nigerian team in a dead rubber clash with Tanzania in Uyo.

Though it was a meaningless match as both countries failed to make the cut to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, it however afforded Rohr the chance to show his character to Nigerians with the victory.

Interestingly, while Nigeria moved upward, Eagles opponents in the 2018 World Cup pairing like Zambia, Algeria and Cameroun all slipped in the September rankings.
Zambia, who will host Nigeria next month in final round of the qualifying series for the World Cup, are now 92nd in the world after they occupied 91st position in August.

The Indomitable Lions of Cameroun, dropped five places to 59th in the world and 11th in Africa while Algeria slipped to 35th in the world and lost top spot in Africa to Cote d’Ivoire.

At the global level, despite the shifts up and down the ranking, Argentina and Belgium however remain fixed in first and second place respectively, cementing their positions at the summit of the World Ranking for another month.

Elsewhere in the top five, Germany stepped up into the third spot while Colombia is fourth. Rejuvenated Brazil, under new coach Tite, moved into joint fourth place, thanks largely due to victories against Colombia and Ecuador in World Cup qualifiers.

The large number of qualifying fixtures for continental competitions and the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia in September reflected in significant movement.
The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on October 20, 2016.

Africa Top 5
Ivory Coast
Algeria
Senegal
Tunisia
Ghana
World Top 5
Argentina
Belgium
Germany
Colombia
Brazil