April 01, (THEWILL) – Despite failing to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the Super Eagles improved significantly in FIFA’s March rankings revealed Wednesday. Nigeria has moved up six places in the rankings, to 30th place.
The Super Eagles are also ranked third in Africa, while Algeria, which also failed to qualify for Qatar 2022, is now ranked seventh in Africa.
On the global level, Brazil is back on top five years since they were last in number one. THEWILL recalls that the South American country previously spent 4,731 days at the top of the rankings, the most by any team before dropping out of the top spot.
Their recent 4-0 home victory over Chile and another 4-0 away humiliation of Bolivia in the World Cup qualifying series allowed the South Americans to leapfrog Belgium into first place, which Belgium had held for the previous three years.
On Belgium’s part, a 2-2 tie with Ireland on March 26 may have had an impact on their drop to second place. France is now 3rd followed by Argentina (4th), England (5th), Italy (6th), Spain (7th), and Portugal (8th).
The March 2022 table is thus a new chapter in rankings history, but it will also be used to determine the seeding for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Final Draw, which will take place in Doha on Friday afternoon.
Based on the new rankings, the draw will have hosts Qatar, Brazil, Belgium, France, Argentina, England, Spain, and Portugal in Pot 1. Mexico, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Uruguay, Switzerland, the United States, and Croatia are in the second pot.
Pot 3 will have Senegal, Iran, Morocco, Serbia, Poland, the Republic of Korea, and Tunisia. Pot 4: Cameroon, Canada, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, winner of intercontinental play-off 1, winner of intercontinental play-off 2 and the winner of the European play-off.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
