Nigeria’s beach soccer national team, Super Sand Eagles have been ranked Africa’s third best team in the sector, and 16th overall in the world.
Sports247.ng can report that despite placing second behind Senegal at last year’s CAF Beach Soccer Cup of Nations in Egypt, Nigeria has been placed behind the champions and the hosts of that competition.
Details of the ranking show that, while the runners-up are rated third on the continent, African champions Senegal are top and 10th in the world.
Information released by Confederation of African Football (CAF), based on statistics provided by Beach Soccer Worldwide, disclosed that the data contains results in all competitions from February 2015 to January 2019.
CAF further stated: “The competitions considered in the rankings during the stipulated period include FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, Continental Qualifiers for the Beach Soccer World Cup, Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup, Continental Beach Soccer League, Cups and Games, Beach Soccer Worldwide Tours (Category 1 & 2) and Friendly matches.
“Senegal has 1174 points and is the only African side in the top 10 of the rankings which has 113 teams from across the globe. Brazil tops the list with 3785 points, Iran next on 2543 points, Portugal (2450), Russia (2017) and Italy (1978) completing the top five.
“Tahiti (1706), Paraguay (1534), Switzerland (1410) and Spain (1194) are the other teams ranked above Senegal, who beat Nigeria 6-1 to be crowned champions at last Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt in December 2018.
“Egypt (12th), Nigeria (16th), Morocco (19th), Madagascar (35th) and Cote d’Ivoire (39th) are the African teams in the top 50.
“Libya (56th), Tanzania (58th), Mozambique (61st), Ghana (66th), Cape Verde (69th), Uganda (71st), Kenya (82nd), South Africa (85th), Seychelles (87th), Mauritius (91st), Djibouti (92nd), Tunisia (94th), Algeria (96th) and Zanzibar (99th) complete the ranked African teams.”
