NPL slips to fifth best in Africa
by Iwedi Ojimah 30 January 2013, 06:20
The NPL has been ranked as the fifth strongest league in Africa for 2012 by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS).
IFFHS is a Germany-based organisation founded in 1984 to chronicle the history and records of association football.
The world ranking for strongest national leagues is determined annually by the IFFHS on the basis of all national (championship), and (inter)continental (confederations & FIFA club competitions) results of the clubs.
According to IFFHS, the Sudanese Premier League emerged the strongest in Africa after three clubs made it to the group stage of the CAF Confederation Cup.
El Merreikh topped Group A and was followed by El Hilal in second place but El Ahly Shandy finished at the foot of the table in the same pool.
IFFHS rated the NPL 60th in the world and 5 th in Africa, beating the Absa Premiership of South Africa, the local dream destination for most budding African players.
The Absa Premiership was rated 82nd in the world and 12th in Africa.
The Tunisian Ligue 1 is second strongest and 42nd in the annual world ranking followed by Mali, Morocco and Nigeria.
With no competition taking place since January 2012, the once revered Egyptian league has plummeted to 14th in Africa and 91st in the world.
On the world stage, Spain's La Liga, which provided all 11 members of the FIFPro World XI in 2012, retained its place as the top league in the world for the third year in a row.
The Brazilian national league, the Brasileirão, has climbed into second place on the world ranking while the Germany Bundesliga is ranked third and the Italian TIM Serie A is ranked fourth, a position higher than the much media frenzied English Premier League.
Top ten African Leagues: ( world ranking to the left )
35. (1) Sudan
42. (2) Tunisia
45. (3) Mali
56. (4) Morocco
60. (5) Nigeria
65. (6) Ghana
66. (7) Angola
67. (8) Zimbabwe
72. (9) Algeria
73. (10) Ivory Coast
