Ivory Coast Tops in Africa - July 2009

FIFA's July 2009 world rankings are out and in Africa, Ivory Coast's Elephants reign supreme.

The Elephants are 18th in the world, up 20 places from last month. They've now over taken last month's African #1, Cameroon, who slipped to second, 29th in the world.

This matches Ivory Coast's highest ever position in the FIFA table. Go on, Elephants!

Ivory Coast's two wins in 2010 World Cup qualifying in the last month helped them move into the number one position in Africa.

They were also aided by Cameroon's poor performance in the same campaign so far.

The Indomitable Lions suffered a disappointing draw with Morocco.

Elsewhere, African champions Egypt and World Cup hosts South Africa both moved up two spots. Egypt is now #6, 38th in the world. South Africa is #13, 70th in the world.

Good performances at the Confederations Cup have seen both Egypt and South Africa improve their rankings.

The Pharaohs dropped out of the tournament at the group stage but their win over the reigning world champions Italy gave them plenty of points.

South Africa moved after strong losing performances against Spain and Brazil.

Gabon are also big climbers this month - going up to third in the African rankings and 30th overall, thanks to their big win over Togo in 2010 qualifying.

Sierra Leone are the biggest fallers - dropping 40 places to 125th in the world.

The bottom three? Djibouti, Comoros, and the Central African Republic.

Do these countries even play matches??

For the full table, please click here ...