The Republic began the current season in fourteenth, although they dropped one place following their final Euro 2004 Group 10 loss to Switzerland. It's an unfortunate statistic but Kerr's men are ranked ahead of EIGHT of the qualifiers for next summer's European Championships in Portugal.
Turkey are the only country who are higher in the rankings who missed out on qualification for Euro 2004, though it will still be a busy year for Ireland with a programme of friendlies starting in February and the World Cup qualifiers to come in September.
Meanwhile the GAA has denied that it has been asked to make its headquarters Croke Park available for those World Cup qualifiers. There has been speculation that the FAI wants access to Croke Park while Lansdowne Road undergoes redevelopment work.
FAI sources have hinted that Republic of Ireland games might have to staged in Britain because of the scheduled work at Lansdowne Road with Celtic Park in Glasgow mooted as a possible venue. However, GAA public relations officer Danny Lynch insisted that the FAI had not been in contact with the association over the issue.
He emphasised that only the GAA's annual congress in April could make a decision to open up Croke Park to other sports. 'There has never been any approach from the FAI about the issue, or indeed the IRFU,' said Lynch.
'In fact, both groups issued a statement that they hadn't been in official contact with us some time ago and that's the way it remains.' Despite Lynch's comments, speculation that Croke Park could stage soccer and rugby internationals within the next year will continue.
Current GAA president Sean Kelly is on record as saying that he favours making the 80,000 capacity stadium available to the other footballing codes although he has emphasised that this is a personal opinion.