The Nigerian Premier Football League (NPFL) has been ranked the 74th strongest league in the world and fourth in Africa, according to the Opta Power Rankings released in November 2025, Bold Sports reports.
The data, updated on November 13, places the NPFL among the top 100 leagues globally, underscoring its growing competitiveness and quality.
Opta’s ranking is based on the average rating of teams within each league and the performance levels of their top clubs. The analysis also incorporates supercomputer modeling to assess competitive depth and overall league quality across all football competitions worldwide.
The ranking process includes:
League average rating: The average rating of all clubs in the competition.
Top 10 clubs average: The average rating of the 10 highest-rated clubs in each league.
Top 5 clubs average: The average rating of the five highest-rated clubs in each league.
In Africa, Algeria’s Ligue 1 is ranked the strongest, sitting 40th globally, followed by the Egyptian Premier League (45th) and South Africa’s Premier Soccer League (52nd). The NPFL comes fourth in Africa and 74th in the world, while the Ghana Premier League rounds out the continent’s top five at 77th globally.
Globally, the English Premier League retains its position as the strongest league, followed by Spain’s La Liga. The German Bundesliga climbs one spot into third, Italy’s Serie A sits fourth, and France’s Ligue 1 completes the global top five.
The NPFL ranks above several established leagues, including the Iraqi Premier League, Venezuelan Primera División, Finnish Veikkausliiga, Armenian Premier League, Georgian Premier League, and Belarusian Premier League, among others.
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