Many African countries have seen their rankings drop drastically in the latest FIFA table, but the Gambia have made a significant progress in monthly the rankings.

The February 2009 rankings released by the world’s football governing body (FIFA) yesterday confirmed the Gambia Scorpions as the 73rd best side in the world - breaking their previous best-ever placing of 75th position in the January 2009 rankings. The Scorpions also bettered their African standing by one place - moving from 18th to 17th position, only 7 places adrift of  arch rivals Senegal.

A number of African big guns, including Cameroon,  have seen their standings fall. The Indomitable Lions, who still remain Africa’s top team, have dropped two places to 16th and are now the only African side in the top 20.  Nigeria were 17th but have fallen six places to 23rd in the list.

The biggest decline sees African champions Egypt drop 15 places from 15th to 30th position.  The Pharaohs' slump in the table is due to less importance being placed on their results over the last three years - namely their successes at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2006 and 2008.

The wider decline in the rankings of African teams is caused by the fact that Fifa place more emphasis on recent results than those over the past four years. Ghana's Black Stars are down 10 places to 35th, while Ivory Coast are down nine places to 36th.