I thought today was the day that FIFA was to announce what would happen with the half-slots. Ie. Are they going to have a round robin format of the 4 half-slot teams on a neutral site? Is the 4th CONCACAF team still going to play the 5th Asian team? etc. Anyone know.
I think I found the answer to my own question. From a Reuters article printed today: "- - - PLAYOFFS: A playoff round involving one team from Asia, CONCACAF, Oceania and South America will determine two finalist places. FIFA will decide how the playoff matches will work in due course." In other words, they still haven't decided yet and will make it up as they go along.
A Round Robin TBD?? Seven winners of that Asian extra-preliminary round will join 25 seeded nations in the draw and either four or five Asian teams will qualify for 2006. That number depends on the outcome of a playoff round due to be staged between one team each from South America, the CONCACAF zone (North and Central America/Caribbean), Asia and Oceania. from http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=sportsNews&storyID=414535§ion=news
and if I'd clicked the other link FIRST World Cup haggling heats up FRANKFURT, Germany - International soccer chiefs intensified their lobbying here Wednesday to thrash out how the two remaining places in the 2006 World Cup will be decided. Click here >> to visit Betfair, the premier betting exchange that offers up to 20% better odds on football than traditional bookmakers. Once the first 30 places in the 2006 finals are decided the runners-up from four zones must play off for the two remaining places. World soccer's governing body FIFA has to decide on the play-off format for teams from Oceania, Asia, North/Central America (CONCACAF) and South America. Asia and South America have each been given direct entry for four teams with their fifth team going into a play-off series. Three countries qualify directly from CONCACAF with its fourth-best team going into the play-offs. The Oceania winner progresses only as far as the play-offs after FIFA overturned its decision to give Oceania direct entry in June and turned down a proposal to increase the number of finalists from 32 to 36. That would have pleased all four confederations but FIFA said it would have created an unmanageable tournament. FIFA president Sepp Blatter says his executive committee which meets Thursday has three options: - a draw for all four teams with the winners of the two matches qualifying for Germany - a regional draw with Asia versus Oceania and South America versus CONCACAF - give Oceania direct entry at the expense of the fifth South America team and hold a play-off between Asia and CONCACAF Oceania was originally given direct entry with the South Americans losing one finals spot but the South Americans lobbied successfuly for a return to the old system where the fifth team in their zone went into a play-off. Oceania's call for a four-way play-off series with the other confederations has already been turned down. The last time a team from the Oceania confederation qualified for the World Cup finals was New Zealand in 1982. Australia made their one and only appearance at the finals in Germany in 1974. The 30 teams with direct entry come from: Europe (14), Asia (4), South America (4), Africa (5), North, Central America and Caribbean (3). from http://www.readsport.com/article.asp?art=499 Through GoogleSport So it's possible the Oceania spot could come back to an automatic spot at the expense of the .5 spot from South America. Yeah right.
Vot vas he dinking, mein goott! If Blatter said this (and if the article has any veracity), he is incredibly stupid, as it would foul up the atmosphere for Friday. My bet is that they put off the decision further so as to prevent furhter distraction and controversy this week. Can you imagine even suggesting a revisiting of the issue given the controversy that the prior two reversals caused concerning SAmn halfspot vs. Oceania automatic spot? What is he thinking?
Re: and if I'd clicked the other link FIRST Just to clarify this the only team to represent Oceania at the WC was New Zealand in 1982. Australia qualified for the 1974 WC as an independent country. Crowdie
1st-4th in Comenbol (SA) is in WC, the 5th will play against the winner in Oceania. Maybe we can have 5 teams from SA again!
My understanding is that the fate of the 4 half spots have not been decided yet after protests from the OFC. Crowdie
An other solution might be to give the Oceania winner a direct place in the World Cup and let the other 3 play-off for 1 place.
That would be unworkable. Even if we found 3 match dates in November, 2005, at a neutral venue (TV revenue will be locked onto the Euro runoffs at the same time), one team would have a longer rest between games, an unfair advantage. Time for FIFA to bite the bullet, and make a quick hard choice. The best one would be to DRAW for the two home-and-away series, and then revisit the whole allocation issue again for 2010.
The official word!! http://www.fifa.com/en/display/mrel,73248.html The above link mentions FIFA's decision about the playoffs. Concacaf will play Asia (yippee!). The 5th South American team will play the Oceania representative. (I must offer apologies, I did think the fairest thing would be to offer Oceania the 5th place Asia team). It also mentions that only one football association can host the world cup--which seems to indicate no co-hosts in the future. (At least, not until they change their mind again).
Another wrong decision. Asia/Oceania and an Americas play-off would have been the obvious and right choice
Well, the decision didn't change, so you only got it in the rear once. Being reminded of the act doesn't help though. As a Canadian, I'm glad that we don't have to face the South Americans if we come in 4th in the CONCACAF hex, but it would have been good if FIFA would have at least considered redressing Oceania, regardless of anyones's views, by at least drawing for the half-spot playoffs. I think that Australia has some real first class players, though, and if they can practice enough and get some good friendlies in Europe over the next 22 months, I think they could beat any 5th place team that South America can throw at them. The Australian Association should approach CONCACAF as well about getting into the Gold Cup in the summer of 2005, to get some Latin oppostition, even if the tournament is a bit of a laffer. Too bad about the extra Oceania WCQ's, though, they'll be a waste of effort.
Oceania didn't deserve a full spot, but it's unfortunate that they're having to play the 5th place South American again. Although when you think about it, for Australia playing New Zealand and then someone like Ecuador or Chile for a place in the finals is not exactly mission impossible. But the key here is the Asians. Asia actually has an extraordinarily large number of member countries, of which a good deal of them have soccer as their number 1 sport. Therefore considering how few automatic spots they have, they deserve the easiest matchup for their playoff team which is the Concacaf team. Unfortunately for Oceania that leaves only the South American team for them.
Sorry, Crowdie, I didn't realize (or I had forgotten) that you are a Kiwi, not an Aussie. Well, best of luck to your team too. Against the odds, you may be able to nip Australia and their superstars, especially if they remain screwed up administratively (they must have been taken lessons on being incompetent from the Canadian Soccer Association). It would suck big time if you were to beat Australia and not make it to the big show.
Within days of the announcement that the OFC had automatic qualification to the 2006 WC Soccer New Zealand had signed new sponsors that brought vital money into the New Zealand game. After the announcement that the automatic qualification spot was lost that sponsorship was also lost. That was the first time. So anybody who believes that giving the OFC countires automatic qualification into the WC will not promote the game here needs to wake up and smell the coffee!!! The announcement the the top OFC qualifier will play off against the 5th SA qualifier rather then the AFC qualifier was the second time. Crowdie
Not a problem mate. When I travel overseas people regularly mistake me for an Aussie If we make it to the OFC qualification final then I will be cheering for the All Whites but if the Aussies win then I will be cheering for the Aussies against the SA team. It is extremely important for an OFC team to qualify for the 2006 WC as currently nobody down here believes that FIFA want us there so they make it also impossible to qualify. The OFC qualifiers are therefore seen as a waste of time so nobody goes. At the same time people see the All Blacks performing and the Kiwi League team performing so it doesn't do soccer here any favours :-( Crowdie
You shouldn't only look at the number of teams but mainly to the results they obtain in the World Cup. Except Japan and South Korea in the last World Cup Asian team didn't have a good results. China and Saudi Arabia were chanceless at the last World Cup, so I think 4 Asian teams in the World Cup is more than enough.
ForzaAZ, it's not just about current quality, it's also about potential. The potential in asia is huge, population wise it's the biggest continent and the game is rapidly hitting number 1 in most of these countries, if it's not there already. If they keep improving their infrastructure and domestic leagues, which is happening, then they will do better in every tournament. Saudi Arabia was a bit misleading in their perfomance, it's also worth bearing in mind that they played a lot better against Cameroon and Ireland than they did in that debacle against Germany... The more opportunities Asia have to play in the World Cup, the faster they will reach that potential. By contrast in Oceania the potential is very limited. The population is a great deal smaller and rugby is king in that region, it's highly doubtful that apart from Australia any of the other countries can support a top class team. New Zealand could improve to become more competitive and are not weak, but beyond that? The likes of Fiji, Samoa, Tonga etc can barely support their rugby teams, how on earth are they going to be able to manage soccer as well? First of all I would expect it to be a close couple of matches and certainly wouldn't bet against the asian team, whichever one that would be, probably Iran again. As noted above, CONCACAF is the easiest playoff matchup, doesn't mean it's a walkover or a guranteed win for the Asian team by any means, but it's much easier to play the likes of Canada or Honduras in a playoff than a Uruguay or Columbia. Understand?
Ah, I thought you were puting Australia noticeably higher than a 4th place CONCACAF team, which debatable.
You continue to mention potential, but potential only goes so far. Many people are upset that Asia is getting 4 1/2 spots because when at the big show, they struggle. Now fine, you can make a case for Japan and South Korea at the 2002 WC, but you also must realize that they were hosts. If you want to go even deeper, Japan was in a relatively weak group and then lost in the Round of 16. South Korea did play well in the group stage and in the Final Round, but also received many calls their way by the ref in many of their matches (this you can't deny). As far as Saudi Arabia and China are conserned, they finished 31st and 32nd out of 32 teams! Neither of them even scored a goal! You call that potential? Then you say how they deserve to play CONCACAF in the playoff instead of CONMEBOL? Please help me out here. I mean, I realize what you are saying about the OFC teams, that many of them have small populations and in Asia more people are into the game. But then again, maybe that's because they realize that their team actually has a legitimate shot at qualifying with 4 1/2 spots! Then yes, fine, let's have a team like Iran (which wouldn't be half bad at least) or China or who knows, maybe even Bahrain at the Finals in 2006 while teams like Holland get to stay home. Please.
Thanks for clarifying. Like the other poster, I assumed you were suggesting that a match up with Oceania would be tougher than a matchup with a fourth place Concacaf team which is a stretch. It's not so much that a fourth place team from Concacaf could automatically roll the likes of Austrailia or New Zealand, on a neutral site, I rather doubt that, but traditionally far too many people underestimate the home field advantage teams like Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Honduras have, playing their would be murder for the likes of China, or Iran, or Saudi Arabia, and it's why certain South American Minnows, still tend to give the Godzilla's of South America a run for their money at home. Playing away qualifying games in Latin America is NEVER an easy road for any team. In truth, if South Korea, and Japan avoid that fifth slot (which strikes me as a near certainty) and Honduras, Guatemala, or Costa Rica get Concacaff's fourth slot (instead of say, Canada who simply doesn't possess the same home field advantage) then I think it's a virtual certainty that that fifth seed Asian squad will be watching Germany '06 at home. Dealing with Jamaica, T&T, or Canada would be easier, but no cake walk either (particularly as Jamaica is terribly difficult to handle in Jamaica).
I have to admit, I don't understand why Oceania continues to be lumped in with South America in terms of getting a World Cup Invite. I felt it was ridiculous to give Oceania an automatic bid for the World Cup, there simply isn't remotely enough competiton in the region to justify it, but to have to deal with South America yet again strikes me as a bit much, an Oceania-Asia match up seems infinitely more fair, both in terms of competition and geography. A South American-Concacaf match up could jump start a nice rivalry as well. Depending on who grabs the fifth slot in South American, and who gets the fourth in Concacaf, things could be exceptionally interesting. Growing rivalries can only help the spread of the game and I wonder why they don't seem to be interested. That being said, if Oceania continues to be incapable of ousting the fifth best team in South America (or for that matter, Iran in '98, what a horrendous second leg that was) in the end, they really need to look into the mirror. The only virtual automatic bid for any nation should come from hosting the tourney, or a lucky draw in a competitive region (as England, France, and Italy just received). I'd add a spot for the World Cup Winner, but for whatever idiotic reason, that slot is no longer given. Oceania will just have to do what everyone else already has to, play multiple competitive teams to win their way in. That's not a huge amount to ask.