Many Nigerians felt last Sunday's victory for the Super Eagles in South Africa will automatically make them the number one team in the continent. That was not the case even though the Nigerian team moved up 22 places to 30th position in the world and to 4th in Africa having previously occupied the 10th spot.
Two of the teams ranked above Nigeria in Africa, Cote d' Ivoire (1st) and Mali (2nd), were defeated by the Super Eagles en-route the Nations Cup final.
With questions and queries flying in the air over the February rankings released on Thursday and whether it's indeed a reliable ordering PREMIUM TIMES brings to fore the procedure involved.
What Is FIFA's procedure for ranking teams?
The basic logic of these calculations is simple: any team that does well in world football wins points which enable it to climb the world ranking.
A team's total number of points over a four-year period is determined by adding:
the average number of points gained from matches during the past 12 months; and the average number of pointsgained from matches olderthan 12 months (depreciates yearly).
Calculation of points for a single match.
The number of points thatcan be won in a match depends on the following factors:
• Was the match won or drawn? (M)
• How important was the match (ranging from a friendly match to a FIFA World Cupâ„¢ match)? (I)
• How strong was the opposing team in terms ofranking position and the confederation to which they belong? (T and C)
These factors are brought together in the following formula to ascertain the total numberof points (P).
P = M x I x T x C
The following criteria apply to the calculation of points:
M: Points for match result http://m.allafrica.com/stories/201302160091.html/?maneref=http%3A%2F%2Fmobile.newsnow.co.uk%2FA%2F629816832%3F-395%3A737%3At