Nigeria rise to 53rd in August Fifa ranking

Nigeria rose up four spots to 53rd place in the FIFA rankings released on Thursday, though Nigeria is now the tenth-ranked African side. The Super Eagles have moved four places up in the grading released by the world football ruling body, but remain tenth in Africa. In July’s grading, the Super Eagles dropped 14 places to 57th – their poorest drop in 2015. One the continent, they are ranked Algeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Tunisia, Senegal, Cameroon, Congo, Cape Verde Island and Egypt. Copa America champions, Chile entered the top ten at the expense of the Netherlands who that two places to 12th in the world.

Van Praag pulls out of Fifa presidency campaign

Fifa presidential candidate Michael van Praag has stood down from his election campaign to support Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein's attempt to oust Sepp Blatter. The Dutch FA president has thrown his support behind fellow candidate Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan, not incumbent Sepp Blatter "Michael van Praag has decided, after long consideration with stakeholeders and third parties that he withdraw his candidacy for the Fifa presidency," the KNVB said in a statement. "He will support the bid of Prince Ali Al Hussein now. Eight days before May 29's election, the Dutch FA (KNVB) chief has chosen to back out of the race to run world football's governing body, and he is expected to elaborate on his decision at a press conference on Thursday.