Mauritania rise from fourth worst team in world to Africa’s grand stage

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In 2012 only Bhutan, San Marino and the Turks & Caicos Islands were ranked below the desert nation but a football revolution has delivered an Africa Cup of Nations debut

Until recently it could have been said that the only way for Mauritania to reach the Africa Cup of Nations would be to dispense with qualifying and just wave every country on the continent into the finals. In other words Mauritania seemed a hopeless case. In December 2012 they lay 206th in Fifa’s world rankings, with only three countries considered to be worse (in your faces, Bhutan, San Marino and the Turks & Caicos Islands). And yet Mauritania will make their debut in Africa’s showpiece, when they take on Mali. Their rise has been remarkable.

It has not happened by chance. Rather their progress – up to 103rd in the world – is reward for the intelligent development of football in the African nation that had perhaps the least interest in the game.

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from Football | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jun/22/mauritania-fourth-worst-team-world-africa-cup-nations

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