The Super Falcons have experienced the biggest descent in the current FIFA women’s ranking following their disappointing campaign at the last Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco in July.
The nine-time African champions finished fourth in Morocco, their joint-lowest ever, after winning only three and losing the other three of their six matches in the tournament.
FIFA released the latest ranking today and the Nigerian team slipped seven places, crashing from 39th to 46th.
They also registered the biggest decline in terms of points, losing 69.33 from their previous 1604.
The Super Falcons, however, remain the top team in Africa.
South Africa’s Banyana Banyana, who won their first WAFCON title in Morocco and beat the Super Falcons in their opening group match, climbed up to 54th in the world and second Africa from their previous 58th in the world and third in Africa, gaining 45 ranking points.
They are now just 70 points behind Nigeria.
WAFCON runners-up Morocco made marginal gains, moving up one spot globally and on the continent from 77th in the world and eighth in Africa.
Zambia, who beat the Super Falcons to third place at WAFCON, are the biggest movers in the ranking table, climbing to 10th in Africa and 80th in the world from 103rd in the world and 13th in Africa.
The Copper Queens also gained 89.78 ranking points.
Overall, the United States of America stay on top of the global ranking, followed by Women’s Euros runners-up Germany, who moved three places to get ahead of Sweden to second spot.
New European champions England rose four places to fourth, while France dropped two spots to fifth.
The Netherlands, Canada, Spain, Brazil and North Korea make up the rest of the top 10.
According to FIFA, four new teams have joined the ranking since June 2022: Cambodia (120th), Turkmenistan (137th) Timor-Leste (152nd) and Guinea-Bissau (169th), giving the August 2022 edition a record-breaking 185 member associations.
