Ghana still among Africa top five

Black Stars are fifth in Africa Ghana has slightly enhanced its place on the Fifa world ranking table for national teams in the latest record by the world governing body.

The Black Stars moved to the 35th position from 36th in the new rankings released on Wednesday.

Ghana secured crucial away World Cup qualifying wins over Mali and Sudan but those results counted for little in the ranking.

That is because several teams added to their points tally in recent weeks having played lots of games and the devaluation of matches at UEFA EURO 2008 are the main reasons for the many changes in position in this edition of the ranking.

The Black Stars still keeps a strong place among the top five sides in Africa as Ghana occupy fifth place on the continental rankings.

Ghana with 772 points after adding 22 points from the previous month are placed fifth on the continental ranking table.

Ivory Coast have leapfrogged Cameroon to the summit as Africa's top-rated national side with Gabon occupying the third place and Nigeria following up in fourth.

Reigning European champions Spain also surrendered the top spot of the table. Brazil now sit at the top with Spain following up and the Netherlands dropping third.

Fifa says the last four weeks has witnessed a total of 119 senior international matches being played: 16 FIFA Confederations Cup matches, 67 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches and 36 friendlies.

And that has certainly led to the movement in the ranking.