Nigeria Moves Up in Latest FIFA Ranking, From 44 To 41
The rankings released by the World Football governing body showed that Nigeria's Super Eagles moved up three places from the 44th position in September to 41st, but maintained the fifth spot in Africa.
Nigeria will be grouped alongside other 'minnow' representatives from Africa and Asia in the last pot at the draw ceremony based on their FIFA ranking released yesterday. The standings are the major determinant of the group all the participating teams will fall into.
Unlike in the previous tournaments when teams were grouped according to their co-efficient from last four appearances at the Mundial, this time around, ranking of participating teams is the lone parameter.
This development means no nation from the Africa, Asia and CONCACAF regions can be top seeded. While elite nations like defending champion, Germany and Brazil are already guaranteed to be seeded top (Pot one) as they have qualified for the finals while Portugal, Argentina, Belgium, Poland and France complete the top pot seeding based on their respective rating in the first seven nations on the list.
Significantly, of the 23 teams already assured of a place in the 2018 World Cup, the host country, Russia is the least ranked.
OCTOBER RANKINGS OF THE 23 TEAMS THAT HAVE
QUALIFIED FOR RUSSIA 2018 SO FAR:
1st Germany
2nd Brazil
3rd Portugal
4th Argentina
5th Belgium
6th Poland
7th France
8th Spain
12th England
13th Colombia
16th Mexico
17th Uruguay
21st Iceland
22nd Costa Rica
30th Egypt
34th Iran
40th Serbia
41st Nigeria
44th Japan
49th Panama
60th S'Korea
63rd S'Arabia
65th Russia