Senegal, top African country (22nd) in the FIFA rankings
It is striking that Senegal is the first African country in the FIFA ranking. Algeria was the last winner of the Africa Cup of Nations, against Senegal.
In the last Africa Cups, Ghana finished in the top four in four of the five tournaments.
Nigeria in two, one of them champions. Cameroon and Côte d'Ivoire won two editions.
Senegal, a runner-up and no top-four finishes in the last five tournaments.
In the last World Cup in Russia, the African teams that participated were Senegal, Tunisia, Nigeria, Morocco and Egypt. In the group stage, Egypt finished last behind Saudi Arabia.
Morocco also came last behind Iran. Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia were third. No African team advanced to the round of 16.
In the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Nigeria, Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Ghana participated.
Cameroon and Ghana finished bottom of their groups, Côte d'Ivoire third.
Nigeria and Algeria advanced to the round of 16. Algeria was eliminated by Germany 2-1 and Nigeria by France 2-0.
Based on this data, Ghana or Nigeria would clearly have a better record.
Because of the pandemic, there have been no qualifiers for the World Cup in Qatar.
In the last friendlies, in 2020 Algeria won most of them. Senegal lost 3-1 to Morocco in a friendly and drew two matches in Africa Cup qualifiers. They won both their duels with Guinea.
Morocco have won almost all of their recent matches. Including Mali and Cameroon. Tunisia also won a lot, although they lost to Côte d'Ivoire. Egypt also beat inferior teams.
The scoring criteria for each match is as follows:
Points= M x I x T x C. These four factors being as follows: M: points for wins: 3 points are awarded for wins, 1 for draws and 0 for defeats. In penalty shootouts, 2 points are awarded to the winner and 1 to the loser.
Then 100% of the points are taken from the current year, 50% from the previous year, 30% from the second last and 20% from the third last.
With this system, Belgium appears as the best team ahead of France, Brazil, Argentina or Spain.
In the historical ranking of the European Championship, Belgium does not even appear in the top ten. It is headed by Germany, followed by France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Russia, England and Croatia.
In the historical ranking of the Africa Cup of Nations, Egypt would be at the top, followed by Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Congo, Zambia, Tunisia, Sudan and Morocco. Senegal would be in 15th place.
In the historical ranking of World Cups, Brazil is in first place followed by Germany, Italy, Argentina, France, England, France and Spain. Belgium is ranked eleventh.
The first African country is Nigeria in 29th place followed by Cameroon in 33rd place, Ghana in 37th place and Senegal in 41st place.
In short, a somewhat strange FIFA ranking in which Belgium appears as the world's top team above all the big favourites and Senegal appears as Africa's top team against all odds. The European Championship which starts in a few weeks and next year's World Cup will tell us where each of the teams are.