Black Stars move up nine places in ranking but still not best in Africa

Ghana's Black Stars have moved up nine places to 23 on Fifa's latest team ranking.

The Stars got as far as the quarter finals at the tournament and only lost out on a semi-final berth on penalties to become Africa's second highest place team.

Egypt is still the top team on the continent according to the ranking and Ivory Coast are placed third.

Newly crowned World Champions Spain, are the top team in the world ranking.

Beaten finalists The Netherlands, moved up two places to number two while, former number one, Brazil dropped two places to third.

Nigeria's Super Eagles who had a woeful outing at the World Cup dropped nine places in the global standings to 30th and are fourth on the African table.

South Africa are Africa's biggest climbers, they moved up 17 places and are 66th worldwide and 12th in Africa.

Africa's top ten:

1. Egypt (9 worldwide)

2. Ghana (23 worldwide)

3. Ivory Coast (26 worldwide)

4. Nigeria (30 worldwide)

5. Algeria (33 worldwide)

6. Gabon (34 worldwide)

7. Cameroon (40 worldwide)

8. Burkina Faso (45 worldwide)

9. Mali (55 worldwide)

10. Benin (61 worldwide)

BBC online, Jul. 14th, 2010