Super Falcons Stay Number One in Africa in FIFA Rankings

The Super Falcons will go into the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations as Africa’s top team after holding on to the 36th spot in the latest FIFA Women’s World Ranking.

These rankings came out on Thursday. This is the last FIFA update before the big tournament where Nigeria aims for their 11th WAFCON title. The competition will take place from July 25 to August 16 in Morocco.

Even though they won two friendly matches against Senegal earlier this month, the Super Falcons could not improve their global ranking. They defeated the Lionesses of Teranga 2-1 on June 5 and followed that with a 3-0 win three days later in Ikenne.

But the results were not enough to push Nigeria past Serbia, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic. These teams sit just above the nine-time African champions in the rankings.

Nigeria is still comfortably ahead of teams like Vietnam, Slovenia, the Philippines, Chinese Taipei, and Jamaica. They remain the highest-ranked women’s national team in Africa.

South Africa is the closest competitor to the Falcons on the continent. Banyana Banyana moved up one place to 57th in the world after bouncing back from a 5-0 loss to Japan with a solid 1-0 win over them during the international break.

Ghana dropped one spot to 60th in the rankings. The hosts, Morocco, slid to 64th. Zambia, who will face Nigeria in the WAFCON group stage, also fell one place to 65th, even after winning 3-0 against Zimbabwe in their last match.

In the tournament, the Super Falcons will play Zambia, Egypt, and Malawi in Group C. Egypt is ranked 99th in the world, while Malawi is in the 158th position.

The 2026 WAFCON will also act as qualifiers for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil. The four teams that reach the semi-finals will qualify for the World Cup. Another African team will have a chance to qualify through the play-offs.

At the top of the global rankings, Spain is still the number one team, followed by the United States, Germany, England, and Japan. France has moved up to sixth place, while Brazil, Sweden, Canada, and the Netherlands complete the top 10.