Ireland in freefall as Fifa world ranking places us 59th

The Republic of Ireland have hit an all-time low of 59th place in the latest Fifa World Ranking, published yesterday.

The drop of 15 places since August is also the biggest month-on-month slide ever recorded by Ireland since the global classification was launched 20 years ago.

The drop means Ireland have plummeted 41 places since the start of Euro 2012, when 18th spot marked the high-point of Giovanni Trapattoni’s 64-match reign. But six defeats in the last 11 competitive tests have cost Ireland dear, with only wins against Kazakhstan and the Faroe Islands (twice) to boast.

Before yesterday, Ireland’s lowest ranking had been 57th in November 1998, two years into Mick McCarthy’s period in charge, while sixth place (in August 1993) remains their best-ever placing.

The slump sees Ireland fall behind Burkina Faso, Iceland and Uzbekistan and means the Republic are now 56 places below their next opponents, Germany, who slipped to third behind Spain and Argentina. It also underlines in stark terms the size of the task facing Giovanni Trapattoni’s successor.

Both of Ireland’s conquerors in the last week have risen eight places: Sweden now stand 22nd and Austria are up to 47th. Fast-rising Belgium have hit a record sixth spot, but England are down three places to 17th.

Within the sub-division of European national teams, Ireland are down seven places to 31st. But it’s not yet clear how the decline will affect Irish hopes of improving their seeding for the Euro 2016 qualification draw in February.

That’s because Uefa allocates a combined weighting of 60% to results achieved in the 2010 World Cup (20%) and the 2012 European Championship (40%) campaigns for seeding the Euro 2016 hopefuls. On that basis, Ireland had until recently been expected to have their status upgraded one notch to Pot 2.

With the remaining 40% weighting based on results in the current World Cup qualification campaign, however, that hope could be at risk. The position will become clearer at the end of the European zone qualifiers, by which time Uefa is expected to have decided on the format for the Euro 2016 preliminaries, from which 23 qualifiers will join host nation France in the tournament stage.

50-somethings: The nine teams immediately above Ireland in latest fifa world ranking

50. Egypt; 51. Burkina Faso; 52. Wales; 53. Australia; 54. Iceland; 55. Armenia; 56. Finland; 57. Uzbekistan; 58. South Korea; 59. Ireland.

- FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking