Amid social media claims that Liberia is amongst the least ranking Footballing Countries in Africa and the sub-region, there is evidence to show that Liberia is rated 16th out of 16 African countries, according to the latest football ranking in West Africa.
Claim
Liberia is Ranked 16/16 In The Latest Football Ranking In West Africa
Rating Justification
The Local Voices Liberia iVerify team has fact-checked this content and conclude that it is true.
To arrive at this, we thoroughly reviewed the FIFA World Rankings, West African Zone (WAFU-UFOA) 2023/2024 chart where Liberia is placed at number 16, making the West African nation the least among the sixteen countries in the region.
We also reviewed Liberia’s ranking on the FIFA World Rankings for African countries for the 2023 data and found out that Liberia is ranked 44 on the continent — the least country in the ECOWAS region.
The FIFA World Ranking is the ranking system for men’s national teams in association football. The teams of the member nations of FIFA, football’s world governing body, are ranked based on their game results with the most successful teams being ranked highest. A points system is used, with points being awarded based on the results of all FIFA-recognized full international matches.
The ranking system has been revamped on several occasions, generally responding to criticism that the preceding calculation method did not effectively reflect the relative strengths of the national teams. Since 16 August 2018, the ranking system has adopted the Elo rating system used in chess and Go.
Conclusion
Therefore, we conclude that the that “Liberia is Ranked 16/16 In The Latest Football Ranking In West Africa” is correct.
Evidence
DESCRIPTION: West African Football Union
LINK: http://www.cavpo.com/2016/10/FIFA.World.Rankings.West.African.WAFU-UFOA.html
DESCRIPTION: Confederation of African Football
LINK: http://www.cavpo.com/2016/10/FIFA.World.Rankings.Africa.CAF.html
Local Voices Liberia, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, has implemented the iVerify Liberia system with the objective of strengthening capacities to address threats to information integrity, especially in view of the upcoming 2023 elections, to ensure all Liberian citizens have access to credible, reliable and verified information, everywhere and at all times.
This initiative is funded by Irish Aid, Embassy of Sweden in Monrovia, European Union Delegation in Liberia and the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund. The donors have no say in the production of this fact check report.
