Cameroon rules African football

  1. Posted on Wednesday 14 January 2009 - 12:08
    accreporter
    Image of accreporter
    Kent Mensah, AfricaNews editor in Accra, Ghana Photo: Nana Kofi Acquah
    Cameroon remains champions of African football in the latest FIFA ranking released this week. The Indomitable Lions lie at the 14th spot while Egypt climbed one place up to the 15th position to be the first-runner up in Africa. Nigeria moved up two places to the 17th spot trailing Egypt as the third best.
    Africa Cup of Nations 2008 Final - Egypt- Cameroon 1-0 - Photo by Nana Kofi Acquah.jpg
    Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Morroco, Mali and Tunisia clenched to the 25th, 27th, 38th, 41st, 43rd and 45th positions respectively. A statement on FIFA’s website said there was “little movement at the top positions” in the latest ranking.

    The world football governing body said: “January's FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking takes into account the 27 senior international matches played so far this year as well as 20 matches played in the second half of December 2008. This has led to the status quo being preserved at the top of the ranking, with the top 14 positions remaining unchanged and Spain retaining a comfortable lead over nearest rivals Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Brazil.”

    Other rankings

    Costa Rica (47th, up 6) is among the few teams that made it to the top 50 to have risen more than five places, thus earning a place among the world's 50 best teams for the first time since July 2007, FIFA said. Lithuania is the only other team to move into the top 50, while the other movers in the ranking are predominantly from Asia and Africa.

    The website said: “The Gulf Cup in Oman and the CECAFA Cup in Uganda, both currently under way, are two tournaments that have already had a positive effect on the positions of some of the teams taking part. For example, the Gambia (75th, up 13), Vietnam (138th, up 17) and Somalia (178th, up 22) have all climbed more than 10 places.”

    The remaining matches in these tournaments will be taken into account in the February ranking, FIFA said.

    Top 20 rankings (previous positions in brackets)
    1. (1) Spain
    2. (2) Germany
    3. (3) Netherlands
    4. (4) Italy
    5. (5) Brazil
    6. (6) Argentina
    7. (7) Croatia
    8. (8) England
    9. (9) Russia
    10. (10) Turkey
    11= (11) France
    11= (11) Portugal
    11= (11) Czech Republic
    14. (14) Cameroon
    15. (16) Egypt
    16. (15) Ukraine
    17. (19) Nigeria
    18. (17) Paraguay
    19. (18) Israel
    20. (20) Greece

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