体坛英语新闻：Ghana rises to 26th spot on FIFA world rankings

ACCRA, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Ghana moved four places up to rank 26th on the January edition of the overall FIFA world rankings, the Ghana Football Association (GFA) announced here Thursday.

Ghana jumped from the 30th position on December's rankings to the 26th place after picking 11 more points to reach a total of 788.

The Black Stars maintained their fourth position on the continental ranking table.

Cote d'Ivoire is still leading the African pecking order, followed by Algeria and Mali respectively.

World champions, Spain, start the year as the number one side ahead of Germany and Argentina.

According to FIFA, only 46 matches were included in the ranking since December's episode, 18 of which took place in 2012, with the remaining 28 played in the first half of January 2013.

Ghana's Black Stars, who placed fourth at the 2012 CAF Nations Cup co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, last year, have been drawn in Group B of the 2013 edition of the tournament alongside Mali, Niger and DR Congo.

The West African nation Wednesday ended its camping in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where the team fine-tuned ahead of the Cup of Nations competition scheduled for South Africa from January 19.

The team defeated Egypt and Tunisia in two warm up friendly matches in Abu Dhabi and has since arrived in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where it will be based for the tournament.