Congo reached their highest position in FIFA's world rankings as they climbed four places to occupy 43rd place in the August edition of the list
In the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) world rankings Ethiopia climbed two slots to occupy 99th place in the August 2015 edition of the list. In the eastern part of Africa Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi have all fallen while Kenya remains static but Ethiopia has shown improvement.
Ethiopia got 101st place and 29th in Africa in the July 2015 FIFA rankings released last month. Based on that rankings Sudan, Benin and Libya avoided having to play in the opening round of the campaign. Five months ago, in March 2015 the FIFA report showed that Ethiopian national football team stood at 102nd places. Taking the current 99th place the national side went three ladders up in the space of 180 days. In 2014 this month rankings the national side had a 112th position while in July 2014 they were 110th.
Ethiopia's performance in the last three continental competitions was pretty excellent. The national side advanced in to the next round of African Nations Championship, known as CHAN, after beating Kenya, popularly called the Harambee Stars, 2-0 on aggregate results. They had also a 2-1 win over Lesotho in the first leg of the Africa Nations Cup qualifiers. It is believed that these good results helped them improve their position.
Uganda who was at 73rd last month are now 74th after falling a place, Tanzania also dropped a place to 140th while Rwanda were the biggest movers dropping 13th slots to 91st.
Kenya remains static at 116 while Ethiopia moved up two places and are now ranked at 99th. Nevertheless, Uganda remains in the top 20 ranked nations in Africa sitting at 19th position.
Uganda's opponents in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers Togo have risen three places to 80th and a slot behind Uganda on the continent. The Cranes opponents in the 2017 AFCON qualifiers Burkina Faso, Botswana and Comoros are ranked 71st, 121st and 186th respectively.
Algeria remained Africa's highest ranked nation remaining to 19th place, while 2015 African champions Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Tunisia and Senegal complete the top five of Africa's continent but stand 21st, 27th , 34th and 39th respectively in the world.
In July the biggest drop anywhere in the world was 29 places by the Central African Republic, who fell to 170th on the rankings. In August one of the biggest movements in the list and certainly the greatest from an African perspective came courtesy of Mauritania, who moved an impressive 15 places to 33rd in Africa and 113th in the world thanks to their recent surprise 2-0 African Nations Championship (CHAN) victory over Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile, the Super Eagles have moved four places up in the grading released by the world football ruling body, but remain tenth in Africa. Nigeria rose up four spots to 53rd place in the FIFA rankings, though are tenth-ranked African side. Likely Nigeria opposition in the second round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Swaziland and Djibouti are placed 132nd and 206th respectively in the world. Other African nations to climb more than five places were Malawi (up 10), Sierra Leone (seven) and Swaziland (six).
South Africa are now ranked as the 72nd best side in the world and have fallen one spot on the continental rankings to be placed as the 17th best side in Africa. Sao Tome e Principe, South Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti are the lowest ranking countries from Africa by taking from 50 to 54 places, respectively.
Copa America champions, Chile entered the top ten at the expense of the Netherlands. This is the major move inside the top 10 that saw the Netherlands drop seven places to sit in 12th position. Argentina remain the best football playing country in the world. At the top of the rankings, World Cup 2014 winners Germany have dropped another place after being dispossessed of their number one spot in the July rankings. The World Champions are now ranked third after leaders Argentina and Belgium. Romania remain the surprise inclusion inside the top 10.
Former world champions Spain moved a place up to the 11th spot as Brazil are fifth in the world and third in South America.
What we know is FIFA ranking procedure goes along strict course of action: All points are awarded on a "World Cup cycle," the four-year period between tournaments, per FIFA's fact sheet. Of the international "A" matches taken into account for a month's ranking, most of them are continental qualifiers in Europe, Africa and CONCACAF, other fixtures for friendly
Ethiopia's best record was registered during the 2014 Brazil World Cup qualifiers in which the side reached in the last ten play off stages. At the end they were defeated by Nigeria in both home and away matches. At that time the national head coach was Sewnet Bishaw.
The current national team head coach Yohanes Sahile's who has signed a two year contract with the Ethiopian football Federation (EFF) will take charge of the national side to qualify for the 2017 African Nations Cup and the 2016 CHAN African Cup. The federation also expects good result in the CECAFA Cup. If he succeeds to go through to Gabon his contract will remain in force up to April 2017. The 31st Gabon Cup will take place in January 2017.
The success in the two qualifier will also give the head coach to stay on course during the 2018 Russia World Cup qualifiers. So far he has shown a good start. The federation has agreed to pay 75, 000 birr monthly salary plus bonus, automobile with driver, mobile telephone bill and insurance expenses for the coach.
Yohanes took this responsibility replacing the Portuguese Mariano Barreto, who disastrously failed in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. Barreto had 18, 000 U.S Dollars monthly salary with an addition of accommodation and other expenses. He lost his lucrative job for failing in the qualifiers.
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