I read updated news on www.rsssf.com that the Asian women's championship in 2006 in Japan in July will be qualifying matches for the World Cup. This means that the qualifying matches for the Asian Championship in Vietnam in June 2005 were the FIRST world cup qualifying matches for World Cup 2007. http://www.rsssf.com/tablesa/asia-women05.html Myanmar, Taiwan , Vietnam and Thailand advanced to the final round in Japan in July 2006 where also South Korea , North Korea and China will participate. Two teams from Asia advance to World Cup, number 3 in Asia will play against number 3 in Concacaf for the last place in World Cup.
Is Australia still counting as an Oceania rep for WC 2007 or will they be an Asia rep? If the latter, will Asia get an extra half-spot from Oceania as a result?
Good question! They seem not to be competing in Oceania group who got one place and not qualified for Asian finals.... Who knows?
They will be playing in the Asian Championship finals in Japan next year ! http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/public/article/show.asp?articleid=9795&menuItemID= Oceania will keep their one place and be playing qualifying matches in May 2007 in Papua New Guinea. http://www.rsssf.com/tableso/oc-women07.html
Thanks, but where does it say Oceania will keep their full spot? It would be a sham if they got an automatic spot without Australia being in the mix (and make things a total dogfight in Asia).
These two websites saying the same, OFC got one place , even when Australia leaving OFC. http://www.rsssf.com/tablesw/wwc07f.html http://www.nzsoccer.com/page/2005_womens_review.html
I might write off rsssf as being out of date, but one would think a recent letter from the official NZ site would know what it's talking about. This will be ridiculous though, NZ or Papua New Guinea (and second in CONMEBOL) getting direct entry to a world cup while England or France, Denmark or Finland, Italy or Norway, and two of Mexico, Canada, Australia, Japan, N Korea, or S Korea will miss out.
NZ soccer and Rsssf say the same , Oceania get one direct place. It`s not fair for other continents but Oceania are happy New Zealand should get that place easy , they are not a bad team ranked as number 22 on Fifa ranking with Tonga as number 53 and Papua New Guinea as 59.