Nigeria rise to 29th in FIFA women’s ranking

Despite crashing out in the group stages at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada, Nigeria moved four places up in the FIFA women’s rankings released on Friday.

The African champions, who earned only one point in Canada after clinching a 3-3 draw against Sweden, moved from 33rd in the world to 29th and remained number one in Africa.

Cameroon, who made it to the Round of 16 in Canada were the best movers in the rankings. They moved 10 places to 43rd and second in Africa.

Ghana (52nd), Equatorial Guinea (55th), South Africa (59th) and Ivory Coast (67th) are third, fourth, fifth and sixth in Africa.

The other teams in Africa’s top 10 are Algeria (79th), Morocco (81st), Tunisia (82nd) and Egypt (89th).

World champions, USA toppled Germany, who finished fourth in Canada, to become world number one. Germany are now ranked second, followed by France, Japan and England, who are in the third, fourth and fifth positions.

Brazil moved one place up to sixth, Sweden dropped two places to seventh, Korea maintained their eight spot, while Australia and Norway moved up to fill the ninth and 10th positions.

World Cup hosts Canada have dropped three places to 11th after earning just two wins in five games against lesser-ranked teams.

Credit: Allwell Okpi/Punch