Ghana joins world's 20 best football nations

Ghana has improved three places from its previous position and is now rated among the top 20 in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking released in Zurich on Wednesday.

The 2010 World Cup quarter-finalists last July reaped 15 points to increase its build up to 889 points, but Ghana remains Africa's second best after Egypt.

Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Algeria and Cameroon trail Ghana, popularly known as Black Stars, in the order on the continental ranking table.

In the overall rankings, world champion Spain still holds onto top spot despite losing 59 points, followed by the Netherlands with Germany edging Brazil to the third place.

The significant changes on the table have been influenced by the results of the 159 "A" international matches played over the last five weeks both in the African and European continental qualifiers.

Since its introduction in August 1993, the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking has become a regular part of international sports and an important indicator for FIFA's member associations to find out where their respective teams stand in world football's pecking order and how they were progressing.