[singaporeManU]

Sorry to say this but the reason Sepp Blatter the FIFA boss promises direct World Cup qualification for Oceania is for crony politics and not on merit or need for world soccer.

Vote rich Oceania with tiny island nations helped Blatter avoid corruption charges and stay in power. Blatter repaid Basil Scarsella of Australia by saying he stays chairman of Oceania. But the population of Oceania is similar to S. Korea and most Oceania nations have less people than a average Asian street.

Soccer is booming in Asia and it needs and deserves WC spots before Oceania. The middle east or Indian subcontinent have more claim to be a confederation than Oceania. More WC games for those regions may help distract them from war and terrorism.

Also could say Africa has need for the vacant spot.

Indian Ocean could nearly be a confederation like Oceania - Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles, Maldives and other island nations - very similar to Oceania in population. But would be ridiculous proposal.

The Socceroos going straight to WC after kicking Rugby/Aussie Rules scores against tiny Pacific atolls will not help them in the finals. Australia and the soccer public of Asia will be both helped by the vacant spot going to Asia but to play the winner of Oceania. More competition with Asian nations for the Socceroos - they don't have to travel to Sth America. Fairer for the world and not crony politics.

[sammydog]

What you are proposing is still a play off spot for oceania which is not fair.

I would be more than happy if oceana gave the spot to asia in return for the top two oceania nations going into the final ROUND of asian qualifying. All oceania wants is the same system every one else has, a chance to qualify fairly. I agree that the oceania group is not strong, however, what chance does australia, New Zealand or even fiji have against a south american or asian side who has played a lengthy qualifying process in a playoff. We are expected to turn up and play well in a one off game. Ausralia have lost only two games in the last three world cup qualifying attempts but still have not qualified. How ,any other nations can say that.

[kasai]

I agree with sending the top two from Oceania into the AFC qualification. If that were the case the AFC deserves at least 4.5 spots if not a full 5 spots.

OFC sending its top members into AFC qualification is what use to happen in the 70s I believe.

[Super Hamatachi redded]

afc 4.5
merged afc/ofc 5

[DoyleG]

Giving OFC a spot would help the development of the sport in the region. It was also boost popularity and quality of the domestic leagues in the region.

This kind of screwing is likely why soccer hasn't had the foothold in the OFC compared to elsewhere.

[soccerfan220]

Yea maybe that would be a good idea, austrailian person... but you should qualify with concacaf.....asia isn't as good, saudi arabia and china should not have been in the WC. Honduras could have been and the other nations in concacaf did well...

[sammydog]

If we were asked to qualify with concacaf, that would be fine with me as long as we play in the qualifying group. If you mean play a playoff match against concacaf, forget it. The whole reason oceania wants a full spot is so that we don't have to have the whole process come down to a home and away game.

[Jay510]

Asia should get 3

Oceania 1/2 spot

[Elninho]

Realistically, CONCACAF is too far for OFC to be pulled into the qualifying process. I'm still in favor of sending the top 2 Oceania countries into AFC qualifying, then giving the combined Asia/Oceania group 4.5 spots.

[desertfox2]

Ok, listen to this theory. All of the regions should have a certain amount of spots and then a half of a spot. It would look something like this:

CONMEBOL: 4 1/2
OFC: 1/2
AFC: 3 1/2
UEFA: 14 1/2
CONCACAF: 3 1/2
CAF 4 1/2

Now, instead of having a bunch of home-and-home series to decide whether or not a team should go to the Finals (which I believe is wrong, especially for Australia), they should be broken down into a group of 6, 1 team from each region, with the top 3 qualifying for the Finals. They would play a single round robin schedule (1 match against each team in group, 5 total) at a neutral site. Now this neutral site could either:

A) Be decided on before WCQ begins
OR
B) Be in Germany since they are the hosts and won't be participating in the Qualaifying Round.

This would give it more of a group format and less of a playoff atmosphere. This means that Australia would play 5 matches against other regions instead of that horrible playoff series. So Australia could lose 1 match and could still qualify. I think that every zone wouldn't mind that, since home-and-home series are not a good measuring stick, cause in most cases one mistake and you're gone.

I feel this is the only way for every country around the globe to know that everything is fair. There will never be an OFC merge into any other region, so just forget that idea. I think Australia would be happy because they would get to play 5 matches against 5 different teams instead of just 2 matches against 1 team, giving them a more fairer chance to qualify. I also think that this type of format would be more exciting, as we would get to see a little inter-regional action before the World Cup Finals. Please tell me what you all think of this idea, cause I think it could work.