If Asia and Oceania combined you could use regional tournaments to narrow the field down to, say, 16 teams. Have a certain number of spots for the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, East/Southeast Asia, and Oceania.
Wait for Tahiti performance at the Confederations cup before claiming that Oceania deserves a full spot.
I don't care. You name it "World Cup"? Well, then OFC gets the right of a full spot. Otherwise, they're only making fun of them.
come on let's not be silly... when the confederations one decent team leaves for another confederation that says something... playing in a larger confederation like AFC consistently will do a world of good for football in this region..
Japan played a lot of time in AFC confederation, just like USA in the CONCACAF: none of them did well in 70's and 80's. By creating a professional league, they did better: so let's create this professional leagues and OFC's teams will do just fine.
Tahiti's going to get destroyed... I dunno why they simply haven't forfeited their matches. Their participation is a waste of time to all the serious teams here. Even San Marino would put up more of a fight than these guys.
They haven't because - thank god - there's not only multimillionaire players in the world that play football. I know I'll enjoy a lot watching them. They'll play for fun. Much more than I would've had watching Nigeria - New Zealand.
Football is about beauty. And beauty isn't only about Spain or Brazil; it takes care also of these stories, wonderful and strange.
And now Tahiti scored an own goal to make it 4-1 Nigeria. These guys are OFC's champion? What a joke. New Zealanders, how on earth did you guys lose to them?
Anyway, the 6-1 against Nigeria makes nothing but confirm what I'm sayin': if you don't give OFC a full spot, they'll never get better. They need challenge like this to used to this kind of football. Otherwise, you just want to make fun of them.
Well at least Tahiti made history by scoring http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22896351 and why do u guys want a full spot if Australia is already pretty much a guarantee to make it to the WC and they can represent Oceania
well not for FIFA purposes but in the global stage they are oceania and like i said they have already qualified so even though they are playing in AFC people know theyre oceania
I support giving Oceania 1 automatic spot. Asia didn't do enough to prove it deserves a 5th automatic spot. New Zealand in 2010 got better results in the world cup group than most Asian teams in history.
The OFC already has the easiest path to the WC in the world if they don't have team good enough to beat an AFC or CONCACAF team in a home and away then they shouldn't have a WC representative. They should still be required some difficulty to make a WC spot New Zealand beating Tahiti isn't enough of a challenge. Also if you think OFC countries getting an automatic spot into the WC will prevent Tahiti from getting blown out by the countries that make the confederations cup then you need to follow this sport closer
If most people are against 1 automatic spot for Oceania, another method is letting winner of Oceania play the 5th best of Asia. With this, Asia and Oceania can have 5 guaranteed spots between themselves. It's better for both confeds than losing 1 spot to N. & S. America.
Excuse my ignorance, but why don't the Oceania nations join Asia as well? Would that not help improve the teams? Also, what allowed Oceania to form its own federation? The Caribbean nations could split from COMNEBOL and form their own federation and earn a right to a play-in game. That would get any of those nations further along than they normally do.
Logistical and economical reasons. Imagine if Saudi Arabia had to play in Fiji. And Fiji probably wouldn't be able to afford to play there. The only way OFC could unite with AFC it would be if things stay as their are, and then the top winner (in this case, NZ) plays in the final AFC qualifier round too. But then AFC should get another spot...
OFC played in AFC qualifiers before, but I guess with the AFC expanded since, then they will cry foul of losing such a placing in the final round. OFC, for their football to improve in general really do need to integrate into a final playoff system with some one though. It's no good playing a two legged playoff - possibly playoffs should be expanded to smaller group phases, might make it harder for OFC in the near future but long term make them better?