Sierra Leone’s recent ranking was making all the headlines across media houses in the country as one of their highest rankings ever, with a victory against Swaziland.

Sierra Leone reward was by moving up 17 places up to 54th Place in the FIFA World Rankings released on 5 June 2014.

However; the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola ranking for 17 July 2014 saw them drop to 64th with 649 points and drop out of Africa’s top ten countries.

Sierra Leone can regain favour if they can make the group phase in the Group of death against three of African football giant Ivory Coast, Cameroon and DR Congo by eliminating Seychelles.

Sierra Leone highest ranking came in 1996 with 51st and 9th place in the African rankings. And lowest was 172 – September 2007.

Meanwhile, Germany leads for the first time in around 20 years, followed by Argentina and the Netherlands. The Orange’s third-place finish at the World Cup has propelled them 12 positions up the table and back into the top ten.

Major boost for all of the teams that exited the World Cup in the quarter-finals have climbed up the ranking: Colombia (4th, up 4), Belgium (5th, up 6), France (10th, up 7) and Costa Rica (16th, up 12 – the Ticos highest-ever ranking).

Former Champions Spain down from the top spot to eighth place, while Portugal (11th, drop down 7), Italy (14th, down 5) and England (20th, down 10) have all dropped out of the top ten following their first-round exits. World Cup hosts Brazil, down four places to seventh position.

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