FIFA Rankings: Black Queens slip to 4th in Africa after World Cup

The Black Queens of Ghana have slipped two places to 53rd place on the latest FIFA Women's World Ranking released for July 2019.

The Queens failed to qualify for the just-ended 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France and per the rankings, they have not played any official matches in 2019.

Ranked fourth in Africa, the Ghanaians did not lose any of their 1,452 points in the period under review but World Cup participant Cameroon gained five points to move to second place behind Nigeria who are the top-ranked side in Africa. The Banyana Banyana of South Africa (third) completes the top three while Cote d'Ivoire are fifth..

Cameroon and Nigerian crashed out at the round of 16 stage of the World Cup after suffering 3-0 drubbings at the hands of European opponents.

Germany eased to a comfortable 3-0 win over Nigeria while Cameroon suffered a similar fate in a feisty encounter against England.

Breakdown of Nigerian stats at 2019 Women’s World Cup

Games played: Four
Goals scored: Two (against South Korea)
Goals conceded: Seven
Points gained: Three
Match Scores Group: 0 – 3 vs. Norway, 2 – 0 vs. South Korea, 0 – 1 vs. France
Match Score (round of 16): 0 – 3 vs. Germany

Breakdown of Cameroon stats at 2019 Women’s World Cup

Games: Four
Goals scored: Three (against Dutch, N. Zealand)
Goals against: Eight
Points: 3
Match Scores (group): 0 – 1 vs. Canada, 1 – 3 vs. Netherlands, 2 – 1 vs. N. Zealand
Match score (round of 16): 0 – 3 vs. England

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World Ranking

Back-to-back champions USA (1st, unchanged) strengthened their position at the very top, defeating four fellow top-six nations in the process to extend their lead to 121 points over Germany (2nd, unchanged) in what is the largest gap in the ranking’s history.

Runners-up the Netherlands (3rd, up 5) are the biggest movers within the top 10 after their Cinderella run to the final in what was only their second ever participation in the world finals. The Oranjeleeuwinnen’s ranking of 3rd is the country’s best-ever position.

Sweden’s (6th, up 3) bronze-medal finish at France 2019 sees them make the second-highest move within the top 10 and return to the top six for the first time in over two years.

Early exits for Canada (7th, down 2) and Australia (8th, down 2) and a fourth-place finish for England (5th, down 2) mean they all make marginal drops.

Further down the table, the Philippines (67th, up 7) and India (57th, up 6) are the biggest climbers thanks to their positive performances in qualifying matches for the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament Tokyo 2020.

In Africa, Gabon (124th) returned to the ranking for the first time since August 2016 after their impressive away win over Congo in 2020 Olympics qualifiers.

The ranking itself reached a new milestone with the number of teams increasing from 155 to 158, with no teams needing to be removed due to prolonged inactivity, which is an all-time record.