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By Alex Osei-Boateng
ACCRA, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Ghana has dropped eight places from July's 35th position to rank 43rd in the latest FIFA world ranking released on Thursday.
The Black Stars also dropped from the second position in Africa to fifth behind Cote d'Ivoire, Algeria, Senegal and Tunisia, after reducing its total points by 91 from July's 749 to 658 points in August.
Ghana's heavy drop has been attributed to the national team's failure to beat Rwanda in the final 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier and the international friendly against 2018 World Cup hosts, Russia.
Argentina remains at the peak of the August rankings followed by Belgium and Germany.
The large number of qualifying fixtures for continental competitions (26 matches) and the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia (61 matches) over September is reflected in significant movement in the latest edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.
According to FIFA, a total of 126 international 'A' matches were played over the past few weeks, bringing the total number of games for the 2016 to 632.
Ghana will face Uganda, Egypt and Congo Brazaville in the 2018 Russia FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
