The Super Eagles of Nigeria have retained their 30th and fourth positions in the world and Africa in the latest edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.
Despite winning the African Cup of Nations last month in South Africa, the Super Eagles are still behind Ivory Coast, Ghana and Mali.
There are few changes in the upper ladder, with Spain continuing to hold a comfortable lead at the top over Germany and Argentina.
However, Colombia have assumed outright sixth place on the global ladder – a position they shared with Portugal, who dropped a spot.
The main changes are to be found lower down the ranking, as the opening qualifiers for the AFC Challenge Cup 2014 in the Maldives have seen a number of teams earn an impressive number of points.
Afghanistan have climbed 48 places to 141 on the back of victories over Sri Lanka (173rd, up 20) and Mongolia (178th, up 3) as well as a draw against Laos (168th, up 5).
The Afghans are now in their best-ever position and have qualified for the AFC Challenge Cup 2014 together with Palestine (150th, up 3) and Myanmar (155th, up 9).
Another team to have gained ground is India (143rd, up 24), even though they have not yet qualified for the Challenge Cup and are now relying on help from other teams in the remaining group matches.
A total of 18 ‘A’ international matches have been taken into account for the March edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.
Virtually all of the games in recent weeks have been played in the AFC, with 15 of the 18 games being AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers.
This takes the total number of ‘A’ international matches played in 2013 so far to 155.
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