Madrid, Apr 12 (IANS): Spain retained first position in the newly-released FIFA rankings but the Netherlands, which were second in March, dropped to fourth, while Germany and Uruguay moved up to the second and third positions, respectively.
Portugal, Brazil and England now hold the fifth, sixth and seventh positions, respectively, in the rankings released Wednesday.
African giants Nigeria continued their free fall in the world rankings as they slid down from 57th to 60th, while African Nations runners-up Cote D'Ivoire maintained their 15th position. Nigeria's best ranking was in April 1994 when the Eagles were ranked fifth in the world, Xinhua reported.
Also, the Ivorians retained top spot in the African continent with Ghana, Algeria and Mali also holding their second, third and fourth positions, respectively.
Mali moved up to the 39th from 42nd to overtake Zambia that had held the 41st position but now ranked 40th.