"The FIFA World Rankings are totally meaningless" is a phrase that has been thrown around a lot since we plummeted from our lofty position of 18th after Euro 2012, and while that sentiment is absolutely correct in terms of determining the strength of opposition, it's absolutely wrong in terms of how they impact the success of the national football team.
Under Martin O'Neill we've been on an upward curve since our ranking saw us as 4th seeds for the World Cup 2018 draws, but after a number of impressive results such as our win over Germany and our playoff second-leg, we could be heading back to the higher seeds.
While it's not official yet, ESPN have crunched the numbers and predicted the movers and shakers on the official FIFA world rankings, and Ireland are set to jump 11 places to 31.
Here's the top 20.
NEW FIFA RANKING TOP 20
1 - Belgium
2 - Argentina
3 - Spain
4 - Germany
5 - Chile
6 - Brazil
7 - Portugal
8 - Colombia
9 - England
10 - Austria
11 - Uruguay
12 - Switzerland
13 - Ecuador
14 - Netherlands
15 - Italy
16 - Romania
17 - Wales
18 - Croatia
19 - Ivory Coast
20 - Hungary
With Ireland at 31, if we could get a few wins in the Euro 2016 warm up games, and not have a campaign as disasterously bad as the last one, we could be set to rise even more, meaning that our seeding would improve, which means more tournaments, which means the economy improves, which means the quality of life for all of us improves.
So don't you go saying the FIFA rankings mean nothing!
via ESPN.
