There's little to cheer about as Ghana drops a further six places on the log in the latest FIFA World ranking released on Wednesday.

The Black Stars who have remained largely inactive for a long spell are now perched at the 43rd position.

Tuesday's international friendly by the Black Stars after almost four months of no soccer was not taken into consideration.

Ghana, host of next year's African Cup of Nations have enjoyed less footballing action, missing out of the continental qualifiers for the competition.

The Black Stars have only managed to amass some points from friendly fixtures which falls short of the points which they could picked up from competitive games.

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, Ghana drops four spots from the fourth place to the the eighth position. Cameroon is still in pole position with Nigeria coming second while Ivory Coast are third.

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 not seen any remarkable changes at the top but the Asian Cup has seen country's from the continent making big strides.

At the top of the ranking table, the gap between Brazil and Argentina, however, is so tight that the forthcoming FIFA World Cup™ qualifiers in South America could easily lead to a change in leader.

Italy, France and Germany are next in line.