The poor performance of Ghana’s Black Stars in the just ended African Cup of Nations tournament has surprisingly shot Ghana up three places from the 61st as at January to the 56th position.

Ghana still maintained its 9th position on the African continent.

This was contained in the monthly ranking released on Wednesday by the soccer governing body- FIFA.

Ghana’s improvement is as a result of the quarterfinal berth it got to in the African Cup of Nations.

African Champions, Cameroon, have jumped 20 places up from 37th to 18th position.

The Indomitable Lions of Cameroon have now dethroned Tunisia as African number one to the second spot followed by Nigeria in the African rankings.

Cameroon is now the best-placed African country in the world ranking which still has France maintaining the number position.

Losing African Cup of Nations finalists Senegal have moved 23 places up to the 45th from the 68th position.

The Lions of Senegal return to the top 50 for the first time since December 1995, and in terms of progress, they are the most successful team of last month. The top 50 now includes 24 teams from UEFA (down 1), 8 from CONMEBOL, 8 from CAF (up 1), 5 from CONCACAF, 4 from AFC and 1 team from OFC.

With the exception of China (53rd, up 2), all 32 participants in this year’s FIFA World Cup™ currently occupy places in the Top 50.

The ranking released today have seen the CONCACAF (Gold Cup) and CAF (African Cup of Nations) continental championships take centre stage, leading to considerable changes in February’s FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.