Gotta say I still agree with the OP... OFC should get one full spot... in the semifinal round of the Asian qualifiers
Basically after the Tokyo Olympics, (where FIFA mediates the football in the Olympics) the Fiji, NZ and Australia football bodies met with the AFC bosses to request a join up because they had no confederation to play in. The AFC said no way we are too big and they have enough problems to worry about (incl. wars and cold wars, politics and other poverty and civi upheaval [Asia did go through plenty of stuff in the 60s to the 90s!!]) let alone financially navigate games even more further to travel and turn their nose and backs on them. So mainly Fiji, NZ and to some degree Australia asked FIFA if they could set up a sub-confederation Oceania that meant that the winners would have to play off against to justified their participation in the World Cup Finals at whatever level it is. It was only about 1996 (or is that 95?) that OFC was declared as a full member confederation which entitles them for further goal project funding from FIFA and a greater say at meetings rather than observers etc. During that time, at the beginning Oceania played and picked up countries that is not recognised in their prospective confederations such as Israel and Taiwan as part of their qualification and then play in play-offs. If Israel or Taiwan won, they then had a play-off with confederations that are not in conflict with their regionals to avoid political intrigue. As it is Australia or New Zealand had won to the play-offs with either AFC, CONCAF or COMNEBOL nations. Almost after the Tokyo Olympic meeting, Australia was given a place with AFC and qualified into Germany 1974 as a AFC representative and immediately after 1974 World Cup, they were back to the OFC as many AFC countries bewailed a lost of a place to "an non-asian country" Basically AFC were just sore losers. So OFC was officially started by Fiji and New Zealand and never Australia (not to belittle their investment in OFC). Some in AFC still have problems with Australia being in the AFC but I think they are there to stay as AFC needs to be better competitive wise against the other confederations lets face it, the other AFC countries outside the top 6-8 are not at a good level. AFC would not want to expand to the OFC as the travelling and the temperature extremes are too much for the teams to adjust fairly. The other problem is that some of the OFC nations can easily upset some of the other lesser AFC countries (outside top 8) which would plunge the overall AFC countries in FIFA ranking and reduce their overall confederation competitiveness multiplier making it even harder for them to earn needed points for rankings. The latest appears to be there is a shift from FIFA bigwigs to go to 40 (48?) nations in the World Cup Finals in the future which would include more teams from Africa, CONCAF, COMNEBOL, Europe, Asia and including a team from Oceania and no play-offs. It might be a play to gain votes for FIFA presidency however, the thought still remains. BTW The Caribbean nations are a preliminary winner stage under of CONCAF confederation and and not COMNEBOL and their qualification winners are added to the CONCAF because of their area and playing level. It's like the OFC preliminary winner to appear at the South Pacific games stage and before taking the 3rd stage with NZ at the Oceania Nations Cup.
Oceania and Asia to discuss slots... http://sports.yahoo.com/news/soccer-afc-oceania-talks-over-combining-world-cup-013930002--sow.html
To be honest, I'm wondering if the recent mauling Tahiti had at the Confed Cup and the Kiwis thrashing by Mexico may have been in the long run the best thing that could have happened for well, at least New Zealand soccer, or maybe even for the OCEANIA region in general. Getting regular games against teams closer to their level will do them a world of good...
If Australia rejoins the OFC, the argument may be valid, but otherwise, status quo seems like a better option.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/no-ofc-no-world-cup-sign It may be foolish, but I still believe that's necessary.
Can't say I agree, but some good points there - but Australia being there kind of defeats the whole diversity issue.. do we need both Australia and New Zealand in the WC? OFC representatives should get a more realistic path to the WC, ie - play through Asia's final rounds, but automatic qualification I don't support.
It could be Australia and Tahiti, who knows. NZ has been disappointing in these last two years. Anyway, it should be right only for the fact not the whole world is represented for principle. Let's say Australia don't pass the qualification (like it almost happens for 2014 WC): what then? It's wrong. Anyway, Australia is AFC, so it's out of the picture. Is there the need of 6 SA-teams in this WC? Of course not.
No they should merge with AFC without adding to the overall allocated World Cup spots. AFC + OFC = 4.5 spots. The extra .5 spot can then go to any confederation who did exceptionally well the previous World Cup.
Tahiti, New Caledonia and Fiji could beat the lower ranked Asian teams (Pakistan, Cambodia etc) on their day. New Zealand could make it to the final round of Asian qualifying ahead of teams like Qatar, Bahrain etc. Merging to make an Asia-Pacific confederation wouldn't be a bad idea but I don't know if the AFC wants their fixtures clogged up any more with OFC teams.
They would not have that much clogging. The top two OFC teams would only need to go to the final AFC group and play against the winners and runners-up team of the other sub-groups. That would mean that it would be two groups of six rather than two groups of five with the second runners up playoff for the fifth spot with the winners straight in. That would mean ten extra games in each group. This would not be hard as the team that normally have a bye would instead play the OFC team. The second runners-ups playing for the fifth spot in June would not have to play in the intercontinental play-offs that would be in November and prepare with five months extra as well as securing a fifth spot with AFC&/OFC away from CONCAF or COMNEBOL. With Jordan and New Zealand being well beaten in the intercontinental play-offs resulting in only four spots for AFC &/and OFC then a re-think should be considered. However that is a simple solution financially for AFC. But may not satisfy the AFC countries with possible blow outs in the final group with the OFC nations affecting results. With better aviation planes and flights. I can't really see why not have the top five OFC teams entering into the third stage of the AFC qualification rounds creating a fifth pot by FIFA rankings and then having five groups of five with the top two teams going into the final groups as usual. It would be more games with a bye at that third stage pushing the dates back by a month or two and it gives OFC teams some decent international experience. The top two teams of the five groups would be in the final groups as usual. There should not be any blow out result affecting the best teams and should tighten the competitiveness. This is the better option to my way of thinking.
@AllWhitebeliever https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_(AFC) describes AFC's World Cup qualifying format for 2018, which is different from what AFC used for 2010 and 2014. The final group stage will now have two groups of six.
. . . Oh well, everything is up for negotiations. Looks like they are following OFC lead and saving cost by combining the FIFA World Cup qualification with AFC Asian Cup.
This isn't, mate, unfortunately for OFC. I hope they'll make some changes for 2022, if FIFA want's to save OFC, they must include OFC team(s) in AFC qualifiers somehow. Best option for OFC would be Platini replacing Blatter, he adores minors and he surely would do something regarding OFC's road to WC and it's 0,5 spots. New Zealand needs AFC, AFC needs New Zealand. BTW, CAF had similar system in past when they combined CAN (one held in year of WC) and WC qualifiers. Top team from five groups qualify to WC, to three qualify to ACN.
That's stupid, and would never work. However, OFC can lend its .5 spot to AFC in 4 year contracts. And it's rep would be able to join the 3rd round of AFC WC qualifiers. Technically, it'd be pretty idiotic thing to do though, cause chances are NZ won't even make it to the 4th round. So status queue seems the most reasonable option. Normally, I'd be all for NZ even joining the AFC but that would still leave .5 spot to the OFC which is ridiculous eventhough they'd never benefit from it, I'd rather have that .5 spot in afc than randomly added to a different continent every 4 years.
No they don't. I'm sorry, but the competition overall with OFC squads range from below-par to horrific, not to mention suffering from inadequate facilities and logistical nightmares for these clubs. I'm not saying they don't deserve it (even though I think they don't belong at all), but the problem lies in the fact that the federation, as a whole, has a hard time explaining itself to the rest of the world why the best of their group should compete in the World Cup, as opposed to being a gimmie game for another club that failed to qualify from theirs?
I've had this discussion with friends before. The teams in the OFC, now without Australia, are too weak. I know NZ went undefeated in their last WC but could they consistently do that? Probably not. The best thing would be to place all the nations in the OFC into the AFC or all the teams that make the last stage of the OFC qualifiers, which I think is 4-5 nations should then join the AFC qualifying. This will make it harder but also ensure that the quality of football in the OFC eventually improves.
If OFC member nations want to play in the AFC qualifiers then it is simple... Withdraw membership of OFC and apply to join the AFC. Why should the AFC always be linked to the OFC in effectively helping them? If it happens in senior football then it should happen in the youth comps and then OFC would disappear from the world altogether...currently they are happy getting their youth slots. What does the OFC have to offer the AFC in joining qualifications rounds? Effectively nothing. Just one additionally slot, but in theory they could lose all their slots to the OFC if all 4/5 teams qualified.....hardly happen, but still, that's the consequence. The AFC is far to diverse before it can even entertain the idea of bringing a whole different culture and world to its own game.
But they already let Australia in (and that probably also answers the question about why it's always the AFC - unfortunately they are now inextricably linked I think with Australia being there).... and if anything, that actually damaged the chances of the elite Asian teams qualifying for the WC as it let another powerhouse in, yet their qualification spots did not change between 2006-2010, 4.5 spots when Australia joined. Prior to that, the former "big 4" in Asia had it pretty sweet, with Japan, S.Korea, Saudi, and Iran all qualifying pretty easily for WC 2006. If anything, I'd think they'd welcome this move if it means turning that 4.5 spot into 5 as New Zealand are by no means a shoe in for that spot. Other Asian nations would benefit as that gives them a better chance of qualifying instead of having to playoff against Uruguay or Mexico, etc..... Seems like a win-win situation for all parties involved if you ask me. And does it necessarily have to happen on youth levels as well. They may be able to pull it off by claiming that the confederations already cross in qualifying via the playoffs, so why not enter a round earlier?
Surely a win-win. AFC needs New Zealand, especially now when they increase AFC Cup number of teams to 24. Let's just imagine this ongoing edition with NZL instead of one of Challenge Cup winners (North Korea), would be great as they would have been way more competitive + would bring more interest and travelling fans (that actually don't exist with Koreans). And New Zealand desperately needs to join AFC, their football is dying out there. Same thing would have happened with Australian football if they hadn't joined AFC almost decade ago. I trully hope OFC will soon cease to exist in this form - they should get absorbed by AFC and become one of their regional confederations.
That's what I said mate. The OFC offers the AFC the 0.5 slot for the WC and with NZ it offers a bit more competition. I don't know why the Asian Cup is being increased to 24 nations. What a disgrace! Teams are going to get floggged. AFC is diverse but with Australia already in it, it will not get much diverse with the inclusion of the OFC nations.
This whole OFC thing just evolves around NZ....do any of the other minnows actually want this? If you make the zone bigger you would open up qualifying Round 1.....is Palau going to host Afghanistan in a qualifier? I doubt it.......the format would need rejigging back to centralised qualifies or the AFC needs to push all these regional competitions into qualifiers for them...that would likely mean nations such as Bhutan will never ever play a team outside of South Asia again....Brunei would never play a team outside of South East Asia again.....but do these nations want to? It's the smaller nations that suffer unless the AFC/OFC create a tournament similar to the AFC Challenge Cup, but go right back to basics.