FIFA Ranking: Eagles Cap 2014 With Another Slide

The Super Eagles have ended the year the way they started, with a slide down the FIFA rankings. The African champions slid down one place to 43rd in the last ranking of the year released by the football governing body on Thursday. The December edition of the rankings was the third time the team would slide in 2014. They started the year sliding four places to 41st in January, and went down further six places to 47th in February. In the following months, they moved up two places in April, one place in May, 10 upward movements in July and another one in August. Their abysmal performances in the 2015 African Cup of Nations qualifiers, however, meant a change in fortune for the team; they started sliding since September, and only remained at a spot in November. Algeria, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Ghana, Guinea, Cape Verde and Cameroon are all ranked above Nigeria in the latest rankings. Zambia are ranked behind Nigeria to complete Africa’s top 10. Zambia beat Mozambique and Cape Verde to ensure qualification for the Africa Cup of Nations in November and have been rewarded with a 16-place jump to number 46. The top 20 remains unchanged in the ranking as World Cup champions Germany retained a comfortable lead over Argentina and Colombia, followed by Belgium, the Netherlands and Brazil. It is only the second time since 1993 that the Germans have finished a year on top, securing them the title of Team of the Year for 2014. They also win the title of Best Mover of the Year, thanks to their gain of 407 points – more than any other team. According to FIFA, only 17 international Grade A matches were taken into account since the November ranking, bringing the total number taken into account in 2014 to 834. More than half of those games were friendlies (468), plus 302 qualifiers for continental final competitions and 64 World Cup contests. Source:punch