Socceroos unveil plan to go unbeaten in WC2018

I gotta admit that the opening line made laugh after reading the thread title

And all this time I thought ppl were gonna boycott Qatar 2022.

Just imagine: 2 boycotts back-to-back, like the Olympics.

There is still hope for USA and Italy. Let's go!!!

 

If Australia boycotts, Honduras should be the replacement. Honduras lost a playoff to Australia. Honduras also make a better replacement than USA or Italy for fairness and logistical reasons. If Honduras qualified, they would have been in Pot 4 for the draw like Australia was, whereas USA and Italy would have been in better pots. Australia's group has France and Denmark, so it wouldn't be good to add a third UEFA team. If Italy replaces Australia, that group wouldn't have any of the bottom 14 World Cup teams in the October 2017 FIFA Rankings that were used for the draw. Denmark, who was 19th in those FIFA Rankings, would be the worst team in the group, which also has Peru.

 

Agree! As someone pointed out the other day, it seems like many American fans conveniently forget that Honduras finished ahead of them in that qualifying group too, whenever the glimmer of hope of some team missing out on Russia 2018 comes into conversation

Also in terms of Italy (UEFA), there are three other teams with just as much merit as them (the other losing playoff teams).

Will never happen anyway, and it is entertaining that whenever these rumours get dreamed up (eg. last six months: Peru, Spain, England, Iceland, Australia) that this discussion is all about USA or Italy being added.

 

For Lord Buddha's sake, I thought you guys would pick up the joke after the line about back-to-back boycotts.

USA and Italy are constantly added to any crazy scenario because of the TV rights revenue behind their matches, both friendly and official ones.

Even FIFA cares more about TV rights money, the main reason why the France-Ireland fiasco (2009) was allowed to stand: "Hey Ireland FA, here's some blood money so we can charge TV viewers for France in South Africa... sorry and good luck next time!"

 

Oh sorry I didn't even see your post. Wasn't specifically talking about you, just the hundred other posts I've seen of it on various forums/social media. Agreed, cheers!

 

FIFA only cares about money, but the US TV deal for 2018 WC is already signed and paid for by FOX and Telemundo. I don't see how FIFA makes more money if the US were in the World Cup.

Anyway, lets hope no countries boycott. No need for politics and sports to get that mixed-up.

 

Secondary clauses that get activated for reuse of TV material.
Also, more expenditures from US sponsors if USA had qualified to the WC.

I doubt there would be any boycott either. Too much money at stake.

 

Should be Syria. That replaces an AFC team with another AFC team and having watched both of them compete against us in playoffs Syria would be the superior team.

 

Has a team that wasn't allowed to host qualifiers ever qualified?

 

Then what would you do for fans who have tickets to Australia's three games that wouldn't get played?