Nigeria retained the 36th position in the latest Federation of the International Football Association (FIFA)/Coca-Cola Rankings released this month.

According to the global football governing body, due to disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, only 352 full internationals were played in 2020 but by contrast, football made up for the lost time in 2021 with a record-breaking 1,116 matches played.

While the number of games changed radically from one year to the next, the top-ranked team in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings has remained intact, with Belgium topping the rankings for the fourth consecutive year.

Belgium was ahead of Brazil (2nd) by 2.1 points while France (3rd) completed the podium for 2021.

This year’s Most Improved Side is Canada with a 130.32-point gain having picked up no fewer than 130.32 points over the last 12 months.

Their journey to the semi-finals of the 2021 Gold Cup as well as impressive results in qualifying for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 were major factors in their rise.

Winners of the UEFA EURO 2020 and the Copa America 2021 respectively, Italy (6th + 115.77 points compared to December 2020) and Argentina (5th +108.51 points compared to December 2020) have also seen their points tally increase dramatically this year.

The same goes for the USA (11th + 103.51 points compared to December 2020) and England (4th + 85.52 points compared to December 2020).

Equatorial Guinea (114th + 59.78 points compared to December 2020) made the most impressive progress among African teams, while Saudi Arabia (51st + 81.71 points compared to December 2020) did the same in Asia.

However, just in terms of last month, the most improved Asian team was Indonesia (164th + 11.13 points).

Winners of the FIFA Arab Cup 2021, Algeria (29th +3) jointly made the best progress in terms of places, along with Qatar (48th + 3), who finished third at the tournament, and Thailand (115th +3).

The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on February 10, 2022.