I read this hilarious article (for me at least) today in the Nigerian Tribune.
PRESIDENT, Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, Aminu Maigari, says the body will appeal the downward slide of the Super Eagles of Nigeria in FIFA's monthly ranking of national teams in the world.
Nigeria is currently ranked 43rd in the world and sixth in Africa but Maigari believes the rating is not a true reflection of the performance of the country's senior national team taking into cognisance its victories in international matches of recent.
''When we defeated Argentina 4-1 in Abuja, we were rated below them and when we lost to Argentina, we were also below them, that inconsistency in ranking us calls for explanation and that is why we need clarifications from FIFA''.
''It is simply unacceptable and a clarification will be demanded.
Maigari also feels the Super Eagles impressive runs in the qualifiers for the 2012 Africa Nations Cup should have counted in favour of the Eagles.
''We won 2-0 at Antananarivo yet in the next ranking by FIFA we went five steps backwards, it is confusing.Does that mean our victories are not accounted for? We will have to appeal to FIFA for clarification on this'' he added.
I wonder what will FIFA reply to Mr. Maigari...
It's the usual problem of people not understanding how the rankings are calculated.
ReplyDeleteFIFA should try to publish an in-depth view of each monthly ranking and explain the more significant changes. At very least, send an explanation to each of the federations!