and...it's Tahiti! 1-0 they make history and advance to the confederations cup! oh! and i think i figured out why someone said New Caledonia is not elgable for the world cup. new caledonia is an overseas department of france....another overseas department of france is guadeloupe who play in CONCACAF. you may recall that guadeloupe is eligable to participate (and has) in the GOLD CUP but is not eligable to compete in the world cup because they are not members of FIFA. however, new caledonia IS a member of FIFA and therefore eligable to compete in FIFA tournaments such as the World Cup and the Confederations Cup
New Caledonia is not a French department. It is a territory that goes towards independence, this is why FIFA has accepted him as a member.
FIFA now requires all World Cup Qualifying seeding to be done based on FIFA Rankings. Past World Cup Qualifying performance cannot be used like that site proposes.
I still don't understand why Australia participate in Asian World Cup Qualifier since Australia is obviously in Oceania geographically. I won't object if later in the future AFC kicks Aussies out of AFC.
If Australia wants to face really competitive countries, then they should face UEFA nations for World Cup Qualifier.
I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility for Australia to get kicked out of afc soon. Since they have joined, no West Asian nation has made the world cup and they have already shown their discontent.
It was a fluke that North Korea qualified for World Cup 2010. Is Iran in last year's World Cup not a "West Asian nation"?
No they are currently considered part of the Central Asian Football Federation. I believe all the fa's that we're showing discontent to Australia being in AFC were Arab countries.
Do you know anything about football? Australia petitioned to join Asia because they wanted to get out of Oceania and play more high-level opponents. Asia accepted Australia because its a huge economic market... Pigs will fly before the AFC kicks Australia out....if anything, they'll try to get New Zealand to join as well....
Do you know about marketing? You should better study the meaning marketing first. With regard to football, there is no benefit from Australia economicwise. Let me know what kind of benefit that Asia can get from Australia in terms of football??? There is nothing. Only truth is needed, nothing else. Australia asked Asian Football Federation and AFC has accepted that. Australia was seeking for easier path for World Cup while AFC has accepted that Australia might help improve Asian football. Australia was simply eager to participate in World cup more often by taking advatange of AFC while they had to face UEFA country or COMMEBOL team if they are in OFC.
This is only an opinion, not truth. My opinion follows. We sought AFC membership (have done for years actually, this wasn't the first time we applied) because it gave us access to more competetive football at more levels than just the World Cup. Our club teams now have the chance to compete in Asian Club competitions. If we stayed in OFC one of our clubs would have played in the CWC every year, whilst in Asia we have only qualified for it twice (one as a lucky runner up when Japan hosted it and already had the host spot.) Our youth teams, who always qualified for FIFA youth tournaments, now have more competive games at the regional level and only have around a 50% strike rate of qualifying for FIFA tournaments. I think our full national team would have had a good chance of qualifying for the last two World Cups through OFC if that was our path. Football isn't about just World Cup's. Since we joined AFC the benefits to us have been many. There have also been some benefits to AFC, but I think we got the better part of the deal.
Your opinion is less important than the truth. The truth is as follows. Australia asked AFC to be a member of AFC nation and AFC has accepted. Australia asked AFC in order to access more competitive football but in reality they sought easier path for World Cup by avoiding UEFA nation and COMMEBOL nation in World Cup play-off. AFC has no benefit whether Australia joins or not, but believed that Australia would help improve Asian football overall. That's how the consensus has been made. The fact is that Australia took advantage of AFC in order to find much easier way to join in World Cup. In my opionion, whether Australia has joined in AFC I see nothing special and nothing changes in Asian football.
I'm just going to point out that this is also opinion and not fact. I've heard from plenty of sources that Australia mainly wanted higher competition. Do you think that Kazakhstan, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan are in Europe because it's so much easier for them to make the WC? No, they do it for the competition.
That's not the best comparison because the countries you mentioned have historical and political ties to Europe, whereas Australia has no ties to Asia. Other than maybe Armenia, none of the countries have really improved from being in Europe. Those countries are playing in Europe because they want to keep their cultural ties to that region, probably not really for competition. I'm sure many of the people of those countries would rather play in asia and have more of a chance to make the asian/World Cup.
Some of those countries when the USSR disappeared, initially did join AFC, but as the rest of AFC teams kicked the crap out of them, even at qualifiers for the Asian cup, they realized as they were not going to get it easy to qualify to anywhere, decided that as their label as being minnows would continue existing for them, only that in a less prestigious Confed, so they went back over their initial decission and joined Uefa instead. Among all the teams who were part of the former USSR, whom have played in AFC, the only one that has achieved some good performances has been Uzbekistan.
I don't think Azerbaijan, Armenia, or Georgia were ever part of AFC. Kazakhstan was but this was during the time that AFC teams were actually good in the late 90's to early-mid 2000's, so they couldn't make the world or asian cup. If these teams were to join AFC today, I think all 4 would make the asian cup and Armenia would probably be in the running for a World Cup playoff spot.
That's your opinion , which is perfectly valid. But it doesn't constitute a fact. I believe, that Asia in football nowdays is lots better than what it was before, so I think it's unlikely to see those teams get better results now than those they got in the past. But at the end, both yours and mine, are only that : opinions. . . Looking for more solid info, at the ELO database for recent matchups between those countries vs. other AFC teams diferent than those that were part of the former USSR, for the last 5 year cycle (2010 WC-till now) : Armenia May-2014 vs. UAE..........................friendly in Switzerland 3 - 4 (victory) August-2010 vs. Iran......................friendly in Armenia 3 - 1 (defeat) Georgia June-2014 vs. UAE ......................... friendly in Switzerland 1 - 0 (defeat) May-2014 vs. Saudi Arabia .............friendly in Spain 0 - 2 (victory) Azerbaijan March-2014 vs. Phillipines..............friendly in UAE 0 - 1 (victory) May-2013 vs. Qatar........................friendly in Qatar 1 - 1 (draw) August-2012 vs. Bahrain................friendly in Azerbaijan 0 - 3 (victory) May-2012 vs. Japan........................friendly in Japan 2 - 0 (defeat) February-2012 vs. Palestine............friendly in UAE 2 - 0 (defeat) February-2012 vs. India..................friendly in UAE 0 - 3 (victory) February-2012 vs. Singapur............friendly in UAE 2 - 2 (draw) August -2010 vs. Kuwait................friendly in Azerbaijan 1 - 1 (draw) Kazakhstan August-2011 vs. Syria...................friendly in Kazakhstan 1 - 1 (draw) August-2010 vs. Oman.................friendly in Kazakhstan 1 - 3 (victory) . . Nothing impressive, if you ask me.