Nigeria's Super Eagles slump to 47th in FIFA rankings. Does Nigeria's position really matter?

If the latest FIFA rankings are to be taken too much to heart,then Nigeria could be considered as the weakest country in group F of the 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament in Brazil.

The Super Eagles are ranked 45th in the world and sixth on the continent but an average Nigerian on the streets of Lagos or anywhere in the country,can argue till eternity that the Super Eagles should be way above that.

More so by the fact that Nigeria's opponents in group F: Argentina(6th),Bosnia- Herzegovina(25) and Iran (37) are ranked higher than them for the month of April.

So does this mean that these teams are better than the Super Eagles,at the least on the evidence of the rankings?

Well Argentina is way better off than Nigeria no doubt,but contestable is that of Iran and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Since the turn of the year,Nigeria has been ranked from 41 and below failing to even make the top 30 in the world.

African football governing body,CAF prior to the last African Nations Championship(CHAN) said that the outcome of the tournament would impact on the next ranking in February 2014.

Question is,did the tournament really impact on Nigeria's progress on the ranking? because they finished third in South Africa and itself should have reflected on the positions,shouldn't it.

The thing about all these is that it counts for less. What really matters most is what a team does on the pitch.

Coach Stephen Keshi's team will take to the pitch against Iran in their first game at the World Cup,not looking at the Asian as a team above them in the FIFA rankings,but having a conviction that this a team that they can defeat.

Same would go for Bosnia,there's a gut feeling that both are evenly matched,the Africans would even brag that they are better than their European counterparts.

However, it is a general consensus that Argentina's gulf in class over Nigeria is massive,however of all the three clashes both teams have had at the World Cup,they were close shave victories for the South Americans.

2-1 at the 1994 World Cup in USA,1-0 at the 2002 tournament in Korea/Japan and in South Africa,another 1-0 score was recorded,all in favour of Argentina.

The Super Eagles and Nigerians by extension would consider it an absolute travesty if they don't qualify from group F for the second round of the World Cup.

But if the rankings are to be seriously taken into account,it then means that Nigeria does not hold a candle to its World Cup opponents,because it suggests that they are behind them, 'in whose better'.

There is no time to be losing much sleep over the rankings,and coach Stephen Keshi understands that the only way to defy the ranking table and churn out a good performance in Brazil and do the talking on the pitch.