What's Ireland's rightful place in world football?
At one time we were the sixth greatest team in the world. That was August 1993 and the fledgling FIFA rankings deemed Big Jack Charlton's boys to be among the most imposing sides on the planet.
Given that we are now 51st in the rankings (70th last summer was our lowest point), it tells us how we have declined but also how world football has changed.
That was part of our discussion on Team 33 this week as we looked into the details behind the ranking mechanism, how absurd it can be and how certain countries can work their way up to higher seedings.
This graphic from FIFA.com shows how our own ranking has morphed over the years:
As you can see we dropped from the pinnacle of a Top 10 steadily throughout the late 90s before bouncing back strongly in the second part of Mick McCarthy's reign, qualifying for the 2002 World Cup and defeating the Dutch.
However, apart from a brief spell around 2011 when we peaked into the 20s thanks to qualifying for the European Championships, reality set in from the nightmare of Euro 2012 onwards, although we seem to be bouncing back a little bit again.
Meanwhile this week's panellist Killian Woods got the calculator out this week to work out how many points the Boys in Green earned by beating Georgia on Monday night.
Listen to the full segment on FIFA rankings on part 2 of 3 of this week's podcast or download via iTunes.
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