Are These Eagles Ready to Prove the World Wrong?

The Super Eagles of Nigeria moved down three places from 33rd to 36th position in the latest world rankings released last Thursday by FIFA,  the global football governing body. The downward slide comes despite impressive wins in Ethiopia en-route to Nigeria’s qualification for her fifth FIFA World Cup appearance and a thrilling 2-2 draw recorded against four-time World Champions Italy in a high profile friendly game at the Craven Cottage a few weeks ago. Despite the slide on the general table, the African Champions maintain fourth position among African teams as they are ranked behind the trio of Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Algeria who all will be flying the continent’s flag at next year’s World Cup in Brazil, having secured tickets in the recently concluded World Cup play-offs. The latest edition of the monthly rankings produced no changes at the top as Spain remains number one in the world ahead of Germany, Argentina and Colombia in that order. Although, it is a known fact FIFA uses its rankings when seeding teams in World Cup groups, it would make no difference if the Super Eagles had gotten to 20th on the rankings. The NFF should shift attention from the latest FIFA rankings and focus on getting the Eagles good and competitive friendly matches to prepare  the African Champions for the football mundial to be held in Brazil. If eventually the Super Eagles put up a good performance, then the FIFA committee responsible for the rankings will definitely hide their faces.  

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This article was first published on 2nd December 2013

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