Nigeria has moved up three places (to the 33rd position) in the latest Fifa global rankings released on Thursday. Ghana moved up one place in the ranking which will determine the seedings for the 2014 World Cup draw. The Black Stars despite beating Egypt 6-1 on Tuesday in the first leg of the Brazil World Cup playoff and amassed points to go up to 23rd position. With the return leg fixed for 19 November, Ghana, a second highest ranked African country, will enter Pot 3 if they seal qualification. Ivory Coast is the highest ranked African country after moving two places up to 17th. In the top ten, only Spain’s position at the summit remains unchanged, while Germany has pushed Argentina out of second place. New entries into the top ten are Switzerland and England both thanks to their recent strong performances in the final group games in the World Cup qualifying. Italy, meanwhile, has paid heavily for their draw against Armenia, dropping four places to eighth. This means Brazil, together with Spain, Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Belgium and Switzerland are definitely in Pot 1 for World Cup final Draw on 6 December. If Uruguay wins the intercontinental play-off against Jordan, Uriguay will also go into the first pot. However, if Jordan wins, the decimal points difference between the Netherlands (1135.95) and Italy (1135.61) will see the Dutch take the last place in Pot 1.
