Egypt drop 6 places, Algeria lose African lead as Belgium top FIFA rankings

Eslam Omar , Thursday 5 Nov 2015

Egypt slips further in the FIFA world rankings, down to 57th under the helm of Argentinean manager Hector Cuper

Egypt players during a training session (Photo: Al-Ahram)

Egypt lost six full positions in the FIFA global rankings for November, announced Thursday, to become the world's 57th national team.

Belgium gained two positions, to pass Germany (2) and Argentina (3), to become the world number one for the first time.

Portugal are still 4th while Chile jumped up four places to become the world's 5th ahead of Spain (6), Colombia (7) Brazil (8), England (9) and Austria (10).

Algeria, who glided down seven positions to become the world's 26th, lost their lead of the African nations in favour of Ivory Coast (22).

After 15-place leap last month, Cape Verde Islands have surprisingly bounced up nine places to become the world's 32nd team and the African 3rd, ahead of Senegal (39) and Tunisia (41).

Mexico is the top CONCACAF team at 24th, while Iran is Asia's top team at 43rd.

In other highlights of the top 100: Turkey won 19 places to become 18th while Slovenia (64) lost 18 positions, Belarus (70) stepped up 28 places as Cyprus (76) gained 38 and Burkina Faso (93) lost 17.

Algeria is still the lead of Arab nations, ahead of Tunisia (41) who lost five places, Egypt, and the UAE (67), Morocco (79), Saudi Arabia (80), while Jordan advanced 17 positions to become the world's 82nd.

The Pharaohs: From top 10 to 57th

The Pharaohs played once in October, defeating Zambia 3-0 in a friendly amid preparations for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers this month. But this didn't help them win a better ranking.

Under the helm of Argentinean manager Hector Cuper, Egypt will play Chad twice this month, on 14 and 17 November, in attempt to win their first ticket to the World Cup since 1990.

The winners of a record seven African Cup of Nations (CAN) trophies, Egypt is also competing in Group G of the 2017 African Cup of Nations qualifiers as they recently defeated Chad 5-1 away from home.

Chad was named best mover of the month in the FIFA rankings, bouncing from 175th to 138th.

Egypt has failed to reach Africa's showpiece three times in a row, the first time the team missed at least two consecutive tournaments since failing to qualify for the 1965 and 1968 CAN.

Egypt earlier made it into FIFA's top 10 after winning three successive African Cup of Nations trophies, in 2006, 2008 and 2010.

FIFA world ranking (October position in parentheses):

1. Belgium (3)
2. Germany (2)
3. Argentina (1)
4. Portugal (4)
5. Chile (9)
6. Spain (6)
7. Colombia (5)
8. Brazil (7)
9. England (10)
10. Austria (11)

Top five African teams:
22. Ivory Coast (21)
26. Algeria (19)
30. Ghana (25)
32. Cape Verde (41)
39. Senegal (38)