South Africa surge in FIFA rankings

AP, Thursday 16 Jan 2014

South Africa
South Africa's national soccer team players (Photo: Reuters)

Bafana Bafana climbed eight places in the Fifa world rankings, moving to 54th place, with their win over Mozambique in the Chan tournament.

South Africa have lost two of their last 10 games, winning six of them, also beating world champions, Spain.

Spain remain the best team in the world according to the latest world rankings. The January rankings were released by the ruling body Fifa on Thursday but there is little change from December due to few matches being played.

Spain have 1 507 ranking points which gives them a comfortable lead over Germany (1 318) and Argentina (1 251). The only movement in the top 25 countries comes from Bosnia and Herzegovina who move up to 19th spot, skipping France and Mexico who each move down one place.

More movement is to be expected in the February edition of the Fifa ranking, which will take into account all the results from the 16-team CAF African Nations Championship, which is underway in South Africa. The tournament is exclusive to players based in their home countries.

The next world rankings will be published on 13 February 2014.

(For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.)

Short link: