Rank (previous) | Team | Points | Comment |
1 (1) | Spain | 1627 | |
2 (2) | Brazil | 1568 | |
3 (3) | Netherlands | 1288 | |
4 (4) | Italy | 1209 | |
5 (5) | Portugal | 1176 | |
6 (6) | Germany | 1173 | |
7 (7) | France | 1117 | |
8 (8) | Argentina | 1082 | |
9 (9) | England | 1076 | |
10 (24) | Egypt | 1069 | A meteoric rise and the highest ranking ever! |
11 (10) | Croatia | 1053 | |
12 (13) | Greece | 1030 | A slight adjustment in points. |
13 (12) | Russia | 1026 | |
14 (14) | USA | 963 | |
15 (22) | Nigeria | 956 | Another African country that gained significantly. |
16 (15) | Chile | 955 | |
17 (17) | Mexico | 947 | |
18 (18) | Switzerland | 924 | |
19 (19) | Serbia | 916 | |
20 (11) | Cameroon | 914 | Naturally some African country must have suffered! |
January 2010 was the month for the Africa Cup of Nations, a biennial competition that Egypt apparently owns! Egypt defended their title and shot up the rankings to reach to their highest position ever. It seems that Egypt destroyed most of the competition (Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Benin, and Mozambique).
Cote d’Ivoire reached the quarter finals and lost to Algeria. BTW, it seems that reaching the quarter finals is fairly automatic for the good African teams since they beat up on the likes of Burkina Faso, Mali, Benin, etc. Therefore, Ivory Coast dropped out of the top 20 and they do not seem like serious competition for Brazil and Portugal.
Algeria reached the semi finals and lost to Egypt (4-0!)
Nigeria managed wins against ‘powerhouses’ Benin, Mozambique, and Zambia (in penalties) before losing to Ghana. They finished third and they reached the 15th spot. (If Greece is serious the round of 16 is possible.)
Full table can be found at FIFA World Ranking.
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