By Amosu Adeboye, LAGOS
Super Eagles of Nigeria were non-movers as they ended 2019 at number 31 in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.
The latest FIFA World Ranking was released on Thursday and published on FIFA’s official website.
In Africa, the Super Eagles also maintain their position at number three.
The Teranga Lions of Senegal, runners up at the 2019 AFCON, rounded off the year as Africa’s highest-ranked team as they remain 20th and number in Africa.
Tunisia who lost in the third-place match to the Eagles at this year’s AFCON, are seven places below Senegal in the FIFA world ranking and are the continent’s second best team.
Meanwhile, Belgium are the FIFA ranking’s ‘Team of the Year’ for the second successive time after a record-breaking year.
Belgium hold on to top spot in a December table barely impacted by just 19 friendlies, but with 1082 international A matches – an all-time high since the Ranking’s 1993 inception – having already been played.
World champions France and Brazil also remain in second and third, the positions they held in December 2018, but the make-up of the top five has changed, with England climbing one place to reach fourth and Uruguay moving up to fifth on the back of a two-spot rise.
Argentina (9th) and Colombia (10th) have also entered the top ten at the expense of Switzerland (12th) and Denmark (16th), who slipped four and six places respectively over the course of the year.
But the FIFA ranking’s ‘Mover of the Year’ is the host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar.
The World Cup hosts gained an impressive 138 points over the course of a year in which they won the AFC Asian Cup and made a strong start to the Asian Zone World Cup qualifiers.
Besides accumulating the biggest points haul, Qatar also climbed a year-high 38 places, followed closely by fellow climbers Algeria (up 32 ranks) and Japan (up 22 ranks).
