An explanation has been forwarded to explain why Nigeria dropped to Africa’s sixth position in the latest monthly rankings announced by global football governing body, FIFA, Sports247 reports.
The official explanation for the slump, which also saw Nigeria fall from 26th to 30th globally, was due to last week Tuesday’s heavy loss away to Guinea-Bissau in the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, as the Super Eagles fell 3-0.
The damaging result not only put the Super Eagles in a tight spot heading into AFCON 2027, they also slipped two places in FIFA’s rankings for Africa, from fourth to sixth behind Morocco, Egypt, Senegal, Algeria and Ivory Coast.
Nigeria was bound to take a slump on the monthly scales following their alarming loss to a side that was ranked 132nd at that time, while The Wild Dogs’ famous win has now shot them up to 125th in the world.
However, the Super Eagles managed to stay within Africa’s top-six bracket with a draw away to Russia, which was one of three matches they played during the international break, in which they got one victory before their loss to Guinea-Bissau.
The Eagles earlier defeated Madagascar 2-1 in Uyo, then suffered their heaviest defeat in over 30 years, but recovered some ego with this past Tuesday’s 3-3 draw away to Russia in an international friendly.
Sports247 gathered further that Spain stay top of the global log, followed by Argentina, France, England, Portugal, Brazil, Morocco, Netherlands, Belgium and Mexico in that order.
Nigeria will have to gather better results from next month’s double header versus Tanzania when the AFCON 2027 qualifiers resume, in order to get a better placement in the next FIFA ranking to be released on November 18th.
