Despite their failure to progress to the final round of the joint 2010 World Cup and African Nations Cup qualifying series, the Gambia Scorpions have scaled a new height in the latest rankings released by the world football's governing body (Fifa) yesterday.

The Scorpions have climbed four places and stand at 69th in the global rankings - their best-ever ranking in history. The Gambia also bettered their African standing by one place leaping from 17th to 16 position. The Gambia's present standing broke their previous highest Fifa placing of 73rd position in the March 2009 rankings.

The nation's rapid progress in the rankings is attributed to Scorpions heroic displays in the first phase of joint qualifiers, where they narrowly missed out on qualification to the next stage due to CAF's controversial formula of determining the second-placed teams. Cameroon and Nigeria, the top two African sides in Fifa's rankings, have dropped slightly in the tables.  Both have suffered from indifferent starts to the final phase of 2010 World Cup qualifying.  Cameroon were beaten by Togo and Nigeria were held to a draw by Mozambique.  But third-placed Ghana have climbed slightly and Togo and Gabon have shot up the global tables.

Cameroon are now 19 in the Fifa global tables, having dropped three places overall. Nigeria are down six places to 30, but remain Africa's second-placed team. Ghana hover one place behind the Super Eagles, having gone up three spots to 31 overall with a narrow win in their most recent qualifying match. The big winners of this recent round of games are Togo and Gabon.

Togo benefit from their thrilling victory over Cameroon to shoot-up 26 places in the Fifa tables.  They now lie at 65 in the world and 12 in Africa. Gabon are up 15 spots after their victory away to Morocco and now sit at 48 in the world and six in Africa.  The Fifa rankings take account of matches played over the last two years, with more recent results given greater weight.

Gambia's Fifa Ranking History

    Date        position
    Apr 2009        69
    Mar 2009        73
    Feb 2009        73
    Jan 2009        75
    2008              88
    2007              117
    2006              134
    2005             164
    2004             154
    2003             138
    2002             143
    2001             148
    2000             155
    1999             151
    1998             135
    1997             132
    1996             128
    1995             112
    1994             117
    1993             125