New Fifa Rankings: How Akonnor and Ghana finished 2020

Ghana ends the year 2020 as the 52nd best men’s national football team in the world, according to the latest Fifa Rankings.

Released on Thursday on Fifa’s official website, the new table sees the Black Stars, sandwiched between Greece (51) and Costa Rica (53), locked on their position from last month, also with no change in the total accumulated points.

The lack of movement, which was generally the case of all other nations on the ranking, is a result of the team’s activity since the last ranking was announced in November.

Ghana produced a mixed bag of results in their last set of international assignments, beating Sudan 1-0 in the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier in Cape Coast courtesy of an Andre Ayew double but fell 1-0 away in the reverse fixture in Omdurman as Mohamed Abdelrahman struck late to win all three points for his side.

The scores saw the CK Akonnor’s side drop down by four places on the November edition of the rankings.

At the continental level, Ghana still hold eighth position, just above Mali (57) and Burkina Faso (58) in Africa’s Top 10. Senegal (20) continue to lead the pack, followed by Tunisia (26), Algeria (31), Morocco (35), Nigeria (35), Egypt (49) and Cameroon (50).

The mixed results against Sudan also saw Ghana move from sixth to eighth on the continent in the November ranking.

Back on the world table, there was no change among the top 57 countries due to the only two recognised international matches played across the globe since the last update.

Belgium are still top of the table, their third straight time of finishing the year as leaders, while France, Brazil, England and Portugal hold the second, third, fourth and fifth positions respectively. Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico and Italy, in that order, sit sixth to tenth.

Ghana returns to action on March 2021 with an Afcon 2022 qualifying double-header against South Africa (away) and Sao Tome and Principe (home) to conclude the series. The 2022 World Cup qualifiers will then take centre stage for the rest of the year.

According to Fifa, the next edition of the world rankings will be announced on February 18, 2021.

Source: goal.com