AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS and FIFA RANKINGS

January 8th, 2010 | by: sscouser | Comments Off

Last Updated 16 Dec 2009. Next Release 03 Feb 2010
The teams with a strike-through didn’t qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations Angola 2010. Doesn’t this show that FIFA rankings are not exactly foolproof? Guinea, Malawi, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso were in Group E. Malawi qualified at the expense of Guinea.

December 21st, 2009 at 10:13 am :

Edgar, Malawi beat Mozambique 1-0 (goal by victor Nyirenda). It’s good that they won because they dropped on FIFA Rankings. November Rankings = 94, December Rankings = 99. If they were to win the three friendlies against Egypt, Togo and Ghana then win the Africa Cup of Nations what would be their ranking in February 2010? Just a best guestimate.

December 23rd, 2009 at 1:46 am:

Thanks sscouser!

I already made those calculations, check the January 2010 preview on my blog. However, at the time of that post the Togo match wasn’t officially announced. Winning against Egypt, Togo and then winning all matches at the Africa Cup of Nations would see Malawi’s total rise to 690 points – good enough for 45th place - Edgar

My take is that if an African team wins the Africa Cup of Nations it should be ranked # 1 in Africa (first ranking after the tournament). How should the “underdogs” be ranked # 45 after winning the cup via beating the top ranked teams? The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking current calculation method needs to be fixed. The teams’ ranking positions do not correlate to their recent performances.

During the Africa Cup of Nations Ghana 2008 Nigeria went to the tournament as the continent’s top team on the Fifa rankings(In Brackets: World Rankings)

1. Nigeria (19)
2. Cameroon (25)
3. Guinea (33)
4. Egypt (35)
5. Ivory Coast (38)
6. Morocco (39)
7. Senegal (40)
8. Ghana (43)
9. Tunisia (46)
10. Mali (47)
11. Zambia (67)
13. Angola (72)
17. South Africa (78)
23. Sudan (94)
23. Benin (94)
34. Namibia (119)

The Super Eagles of Nigeria were in Group B alongside Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Benin. Nigeria made it to the Quarter-finals but got knocked out in the Quarter-Finals (Ghana 2 Nigeria 1).

Egypt beat Cameroon 1-0 in the finals. Ghana beat Côte d’Ivoire 4-2 for third place. The worst ranked team (Namibia) didn’t make it to the Quarter-Fianls. Morocco 5 Namibia 1; Ghana 1 Namibia 0; Guinea 1 Namibia 1. Guinea and Ghana made it to the Quarter-Finals.

AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS: BRING IT ON