Nigeria’s Super Falcons have fallen to 43rd in the latest FIFA Women’s World Ranking after losing 83.54 points in the latest update released on Tuesday, 20 October.

Nigeria, who occupied 36th place in June, now have 1,518.02 points. Despite the seven-place drop, they remain the highest-ranked women’s national team in Africa.

The latest figures follow a difficult spell for the 10-time African champions, whose WAFCON 2026 campaign ended in the quarter-finals after a 1-0 defeat to Cameroon. They subsequently lost 2-1 to South Africa in the qualification play-off for the 2027 Women’s World Cup, missing the tournament for the first time in its history since appearing at every edition since 1991.

The Falcons have since begun their qualifying campaign for the 2028 Olympic Games with two victories over Comoros, securing a 7-0 aggregate win. However, the results did little to offset the points lost during their earlier defeats.

Nigeria recorded the largest points loss of any team in the latest ranking update, while Malawi registered the biggest gain. The Scorchers climbed 49 places to 104th after adding 158.44 points to their tally, following their run to the WAFCON final and qualification for the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

Cameroon, who won the continental title, also improved their standing, moving up nine places to 62nd. South Africa fell to 59th, while Morocco held 64th place. Ghana dropped to 65th, with Zambia, Côte d’Ivoire, Algeria, Senegal and Mali ranked 70th, 72nd, 73rd, 76th and 86th, respectively.

Elsewhere, Egypt suffered the steepest drop, falling 14 places to 113th. The Democratic Republic of Congo slipped eight places to 114th, while Zimbabwe fell nine places to 136th.

Spain retained the top spot in the global rankings, ahead of the United States and Germany. England remained fourth, with Japan, France, Brazil, Sweden and Canada completing the top nine. Denmark moved up two places to 10th, returning to the top 10 for the first time since August 2010.