Nigeria’s female national team, Super Falcons slumped by a spot on the global football rankings, just a day before they know their fate at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup draw.
Sports247.ng reports that, though the Falcons kept the African Women Cup of Nations last weekend in Accra, Ghana, their shaky form and scary results might have accounted for low accumulated points in FIFA’s eyes.
The rankings on Friday show that the Falcons dropped from 38th in the world to 39th, but the Nigerian ladies remain number one in Africa.
The two other African flag bearers to the 2019 World cup in France however moved slightly up the ladder but still remain below Nigeria.
AWCON runners-up Banyana Banyana of South Africa moved up two spots from 50th to 48th, while Cameroon moved up three from 49th to 46th.
Nigeria, Cameroon, South Africa, Ghana and Cote d Ivoire are the top five ranked teams in Africa in that order.
USA, Germany, France, England and Canada are the top five in the world in that order, with all getting to know their group opponents at France 2019 on Saturday.
The WWC draw in Paris, France will involve all 24 countries that will do battle in the competition, for which the three African representatives are in pot 4 alongside Argentina, Chile and Jamaica.
Pot 3 has Korea Republic, China, Italy New Zealand, Scotland, Thailand, The Netherlands, Japan and Sweden.
Brazil, Spain and Norway make up Pot 2 while Pot 1 has hosts France, USA, Germany, England, Canada and Australia.
The Falcons, who have been part of every edition of the Women’s World Cup, got their best performance at USA ’99 when the Nigerian team got as far as the quarterfinals.
Only four countries have won the cup since its inception in 1991, with USA having the highest wins of three times, 1991, 1999 and 2015.
Germany won the title back to back in 2003 and 2007 while Norway and Japan won in 1995 and 2011 respectively.
