Bafana up 3 spots in latest FIFA rankings

Cape Town - South Africa have climbed three places to 78th in the world in the latest FIFA world rankings released on Thursday.

However, Bafana Bafana remained 17th in Africa.

It's a far cry from the days when Bafana Bafana cracked the top 20 in the rankings at 19th spot in the world after winning the 1996 African Cup of Nations.

The South African Football Association (SAFA), whose technical committee recently met with head coach Stuart Baxter, are known to be unhappy at the men's national team not reaching its set targets of regularly being in the top 20 in the world and top three in Africa.

Despite not having played a competitive fixture since dismally failing to qualify for the 2018 Soccer World Cup, Bafana made the move as the rankings are calculated over the previous four years.

Four of the top five African ranked teams have all qualified for Russia 2018 with Tunisia - one of the biggest movers - moving up four places into top spot, followed by Senegal, Egypt, Morocco and DR Congo.

The global ranking remained the same with the top five consisting of World Cup holders Germany in top spot, followed by Brazil, Portugal, Argentina and Belgium.

NEW #FIFARANKING

????Germany stay top, with ????Tunisia and ????Kuwait among the biggest climbers ??

More info ???? https://t.co/JtxKiHjKQ8 pic.twitter.com/tlu6PulaoK

— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) January 18, 2018