Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Super Eagles of Nigeria have dropped by three spots in the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) October ranking to 32 against 29 in September.
In the ranking table on the website of the world football governing body on Thursday, Nigeria garnered 1488 points in the month of October as against 1493 it garnered in September.
This came as a result of losing one of its international friendly matches and drawing another within the period under review.
The Super Eagles had on October 9 lost 0-1 to the Desert Foxes of Algeria in an international friendly match and settled for a 1-1 draw in another with the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia on October 13.
The drop in the global spot has also reduced the ranking of the Nigerian national team to the fourth spot on the continent behind Senegal, Tunisia and Algeria respectively as against the third position it occupied last month.
On the global scene, the positions remained unchanged even as 120 international fixtures were played in the month of October.
Qualifying games for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, the play-offs for UEFA EURO 2021, and UEFA Nations League fixtures were among the 120 internationals played over the last month which resulted in significant movement.
Belgium retained the premier spot followed tightly by France and Brazil, with England occupying the fourth spot despite beating Belgium in the UEFA Nations League a week days ago. It was the first defeat for Red Devils since November 2018.
However, there were changes to the top 10: Spain (6th, +1) and Argentina (8th, +1) swapped places with Uruguay (7th, -1) and Croatia (9th, -1) respectively.
Further down the log, Denmark (13th, +3), Algeria (30th, +5), Paraguay (35th, +5), Morocco (39th, +4), Scotland (45th, +4), and Hungary (47th, +5) all progressed, with the Magyars broke into the top 50 at the expense of Bosnia and Herzegovina (51, -1).
The biggest climber this month was Malta (180th, +6), who jumped six places courtesy victories over Gibraltar (195th, unchanged) and Latvia (142nd, -5) and a draw with Andorra (145th, -8). Also worthy of note is the progress of Ecuador (60th, +4), Panama (77th, +4) and Israel (88th, +5).
Business Post had reported that the FIFA ranking returned in September after six months of suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic which halted all activities in international and local football.
