Twelve months of less footballing activity has affected Ghana’s position on the current FIFA World ranking released today.
The Black Stars have dropped to the 37th position, after slipping 18 places down from the 19th spot they occupied in the month of June.
The sudden dip that has affected Ghana can be traced to the failure to build on the 2006 World Cup performance and the country’s inactivity in the qualifying campaign on the continent.
On the African continent, recent victories in the qualifying matches has recorded some major changes.
Ghana drops a step down from the fourth position to occupy the fifth spot with Cameroon still in pole position. Nigeria has moved second ahead of Ivory Coast, who are third while Morocco take up the fourth spot.
According to FIFA, country’s who do not participate in any of the competitive major tournaments or qualifying series at the senior level drop valuable points.
Ghana, by virtue of being host of the 2008 African Cup of Nations are not taking part in the continent’s qualifying campaign and have thus been affected by the calculations.
Also, the latest edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking has been most markedly affected by the Copa America thus changing June’s table completely.
And success at the Copa America has been rewarded with first place as Brazil reclaims the top spot from rivals, Argentina who are now second.