SA should have get 5 spots, but that's not an option. So I go for option 2, basically the same as option 3, just that I don't give a sh!t about Asia and Africa. But probably Africa should get more spots than Asia... they play WAY better soccer.
Hey.....eventhough Hawaii is a USA state....they look like they can come up with a soccer team for 2006 and compete in their own.... Why not giving them a free ticket too and take one away from Europe.....? We don't really need Spain in the world cup right?
Other than Brazil, South American teams didn't perform very well at the last world cup. It seem that South American football has declined due to the state of economic ruin in many of the countries. It seems like a lot of the leagues are on the verge of labor strikes. That can't be good for player morale or development. South America will have their chance to win back the spot. You can only cash in on past success for so long. The state of things as they are now is what matters. Personally I think it's BS that Oceania got a spot at South America's expense, but I'm just pointing out the other side of the argument.
No, SA should have 5.5, Australia 0.5, CONCACAF 3.5, Asia 2.5...they should play each other for 2 spots
No,SA should have 5, Oceania should have 0.5, Africa should have 4.5, Asia should have 2.5 and CONCACAF should have 3.5 with the Oceania half winner playing the CONCACAF half winner and the Africa half winner playing the Asia half winner for the final 2 spots into the World Cup Proper
Most Australian soccer fans whilst happy Oceania have been awarded a spot feel it somewhat a hollow victory. In the past WC qualifying campaigns we have fallen down in the 2 big games we compete each 4 years because most of our best players don't show up for the previous matches (a large reason for this being denial to be released by their European clubs), and as a result our team lacks cohesion compared to the opposition who, as in the case with Uruguay, had had 18 months together. In the '98 WCQ, Australia did not lose a match in its qualification process yet failed to make the WC. In '02 WCQ, we lost once, what we lack is adequate competitive matches in the WCQ. This decision has not helped us in that regard. At our best, Australia can compete with any nations and hold our heads high to a certain degree. Most Australians would have preferred Oceania merged with Asia, but this has not happened. It's not an open and shut case that Australia will get there, NZ and Australia have an intense rivalry on the sporting field and they love nothing better than beating us, I'm not discounting NZ being in Germany in '06. BTW, I disagree with the disagree with the decsion to give CONMEBOL 4 spots, they deserve at least 5.
Past sucess? Like getting 4 out of 5 teams to the second round in France 98? Or winning the WC this year?
Wow beating Fiji and AMerican Samoa man and not losing a game you really deserve to be in the World Cup.
The poll questions were editorials in themselves. Not a fair poll at all.. It is obvious the poll writer has a bias. As I meantioned in the other thread, So. America's confederation is made up of ten teams and they will got four slots. That's 40% which is the highest percent of teams from any of the groups. Letting Oceania in the party will only help to improve football in that region. That's part of what FIFA is supposed to be about. The world cup is also a celebration of the game and it will still end up with great and deserving teams in the final eight. I think FIFA did just fine with this decision. But then I'm not a South American worried that my team won't be one of the four.
Well you obviously didn't follow World Cup soccer a long time like me,you see the World Cup as a charity(maybe it's aiming like that)tournament it wasn't like that before.
I would have no way to answer that other than to say I have followed it closely and been involved in football and international football since the mid 1960's.. I have seen every world cup match either live or on film or tape since then and a lot of them from before. I don't know how long you have so who knows. I didn't mean it like "a charity" nor did I state it that way but read into it what you wish.
Ok lets help other regions to improve their football,lets invite Somalia or Burundi next time shall we,since it will help the region and they have like 100 of countries in that continent. And we still let COnmebol take all the shi*t sounds fair to you? Thats what you said in the post above.
I was, in case you didn't notice, highlighting the crazy current set up with Oceania, Australia used to play 4 games within Oceania and then play a 2 legged series to get into the WC, now it's just Oceania. The current set up is ridiculous, and no, it's not a worthy qualification process for the WC entry. I was highlighting that playing four to six qualifiers is not an adequate qualification process, no matter what team you're playing.
I did not mean by saying that Oceania would improve with receiving the spot that that was the justification for it but simply that it would be a result. Having one spot for the only one of the six confederations that had no spot was a very large consideration and what I meant by having them join the party. Now all the six will have representation at the cup. With the removal of the automatic qualifacation of the previous cup winner the rest of the world has a net gain of .5 spots with Oceania receiving this spot. I simply mean that the attitude seems so much like a dog fight instead of what it is supposed to be and I am not dismissing that it is also supposed to crown the best the world can offer and it will still be that way despite the fact that the automatic spot for the previous winner is gone. After all, that is all the rest of the world lost with this decision and we all knew that was coming. The other changes were based on looking at how the confederations have performed relative to each other recently. I could go on and even give you a lot of the math behind it but you guys seem to be having fun with it so I'll let you.
You can't expect a team to go from playing opposition like there is in oceania and then beat a team from south american that has had 18 or so quality qualification games. Every 4 years our first quality game has been the final playoff. You can not tell me this is has been fair on oceania and given a full indication of the teams potential. This is why we would prefer to have been a part of asia, but we are not and we were forced into a confederation that we didn't want to be a part of. The current situation with direct qualification is not ideal but at least now other nations will be willing to play against us and I think you will find the oceania representative will be competative. Within the confederation the other nations are already improving rapidly and you only need to look at the U-20 world cup qualifiers to see this. Australias results from 1922 to 2002 http://www.ozfootball.net/ark/Socceroo/Socceroo.html
Well guys, no matter how much we argue about this. Whether you think it is unfair or you think it was a good decision, it's already done and unless someone here works for FIFA (please let us know to beat the living sh!t out of you) there's nothing we can do about it. Well, actually the only thing we can do about it is send incredibly good teams to germany and have all 4 SA teams on the semifinals.
What does 98 have to do with anything? This year (2002) only Brazil did anything. Ecuador and Uruguay hardly impressed. Argentina flopped big time. Paraguay was decent, but not all that great.
Offcourse I'm BIOS... I'm SA, Chilean, and due to two decisions this year, my country is in danger of not making the world cup again....We do play Brazil and Argentina (two of the world best...if not THE best) in order to qualify.... The reality is that there are 2 REAL spots in SA for 8 Teams....you don't see Brazilians and Argentineans too worried....because their spot is almost a given.... However there is a lot of GREAT competition among those 8 teams....and all of them can beat anybody at anygiven time....including "power houses" like Italy and England.... The two decisions that were against SA and our spots... 1) Brazil will need to qualify as WC Champ. (-1 spot) 2) Australia gets to the WC with a "FREE" pass...(because pigs will fly before they are defeated by New Zealand) -1 spot... Instead of 6 spots like we would of have....we are only going to have 4.... And like somebody said....that sucks and nobody can do anything about it. (BUT complain)
Even Brazil have hard times to qualify,no team in SOuth America really respect each other and it's a tough league.
What does 98 have to do? Its the before last freaking cup!!! One bad WC and suddenly they deserve to lose a spot?? If that were the case then CONCACAF would be screwed since the US was last in France and Africa wouldn't still be riding high from Cameroon in 90. But I forget than maybe we shouldn't pick from things like 98 that was just 4 freaking years ago especially when FIFA uses them when making the seeds in the WC.