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Australia and New Zealand may quit Oceania

J

Jono82

Senior Squad
Found on soccernews.com.au

SOCCER Australia is expected to learn Oceania's World Cup qualifying fate next month before deciding its role within the Pacific region.

Australia's uncertainty follows the weekend resignation of former Soccer Australia head Basil Scarsella as Oceania chief after a vote of no-confidence by board members.

Australian and New Zealand officials are expected to begin talks over their roles within the far-flung confederation this week after a strong anti-Australia and New Zealand stance emerged at Saturday's OFC meeting in Auckland, sources said.

While New Zealand Soccer has publicly expressed its concerns over how Oceania will operate under interim leader Tautulu Roebeck of Samoa, Soccer Australia is adopting a "wait and see" attitude.

Its new board, headed by billionaire chairman Frank Lowy, has been urged to play a bigger role within Oceania and look to assume leadership of the organisation when the next presidential elections are held on April 24 next year.

But Soccer Australia sources say the new board is still assessing the Oceania situation, with much likely to depend on FIFA's October 19 congress at which the region's future World Cup qualifying path will be determined.

"Our view is that OFC is important to us, but we really need stability in the organisation," a board spokesman said on Monday.

Under FIFA statutes, Australia could break away from Oceania and still retain its affiliation with FIFA even without being a member of a confederation.

But that would be a risky move, as it would then be at the mercy of FIFA to determine how it would qualify for future World Cups.

Scarsella had appeared to have orchestrated a major coup last December when the tiny Pacific grouping of island states, along with Australia and New Zealand, was granted an extra half qualifying spot for Germany 2006, giving the region a guaranteed place at the Cup.

But things fell apart in June when the FIFA executive voted 22-1 in favour of handing Oceania's extra half spot back to the powerful South American Confederation, agitating the Oceania no-confidence vote in Scarsella
Click to expand...

:kader:

I have a feeling that Australia and NZ will remain in Oceania though!
 
V

valioso

Fan Favourite
what are they gonna do form their own federation? why dont they just qualify for a world cup and prove they belong
 
L

Lonestarr022

Starting XI
They have to win a lot of matches, but i dont know how many of them are close. Does anyone know how many are walks in the park, if any, and is there anyone esle in that federation even a contender.
 
F

finger

Red Card - Life
Life Ban
If they leave then the only viable place to go is into Asia, and if they did move into Asia then certainly they would be one of the top teams in the confederation.

I honestly support going into Asia, unless the AFC split into West and Eastern blocs and then Oceania merged with the Eastern segment, I can never see the Pacific region as becoming a place with any potential, quite simply the population of the smaller islands are just too small to produce quality players.
 
M

maddog1983

Starting XI
Well its the same old story ... australia is too strong for Oceania what i think would work is the top two in Oceania and the top 4 of asia have a round robin stage to decided the top three and then they go through ... or some thing like that
 
F

finger

Red Card - Life
Life Ban
But the fact is that qualifying against the Pacific island nations isn't really worthwhile at the moment.

While they may improve in the future, at the moment the best island nation would play far worse than Jamaica did against us.
 
M

man united forever

Senior Squad
I think Australia and New Zealand should join the AFC and qualify via that route - they are both too good for Oceania at the moment and are being held back by FIFA because of the smaller nations. The OFC playoff spot can then be contested between the Pacific Island nations, and they should improve over time with the international exposure.
 
Alex

Alex

sKIp_E
Staff member
Administrator
Super Moderator
Whoever said that we have to play too many matches to qualify, I think is missing the WHOLE point..

That is what South Americans think we're complaining about, its what Europeans think we're complaining about...It is NOT..

We dont have ENOUGH qualifying matches. I dont class the matches against Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, Vanuatu etc as qualifying matches, they mean nothing.

Anyone that knows ANYTHING about probability, would understand that the more matches you play, the more likely the correct result will come out. That is why Australia want the 4 half spots to meet in a round robin between all of them (rather than 2 seperate playoffs).

We would rather be in Asia, than Oceania and a playoff..

People say to us "We have to play months and months of games to qualify, Australia just have to win one playoff"...Yes thats correct, the point is you can afford a slip up in months and months of games, you cant in a playoff.

As for those saying that their is no point to OFC, was their a point to Africa 20 years ago? Was their a point to Asia 10 years ago? How can these regions grow if theyre never given a crack.
 
F

finger

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Life Ban
No they wont, there are too many teams in Asia as it is, and they know the quality of Aus and NZ, even NZ could beat the majority of the Asian teams, and Aus could beat any Asian team in an even contest.
 
U

USA Supporter

Reserve Team
It isn't like Australia has to play tough teams to get to the WC.

I think with their talent level, Australia can beat the 5th team in COMNEBOL and qualify for a WC.
 
F

finger

Red Card - Life
Life Ban
Oh yeah, Uruguay are a pathetic team :rolleyes:

When they actually went forward, as they did in Montevideo they are almost unstoppable.

They got 3 goals in one half against Senegal, and should have gotten a 4th right at the death.
 
Alex

Alex

sKIp_E
Staff member
Administrator
Super Moderator
Originally posted by USA Supporter
It isn't like Australia has to play tough teams to get to the WC.

I think with their talent level, Australia can beat the 5th team in COMNEBOL and qualify for a WC.
Click to expand...
Read my post...

You're exactly the type of ignorant person that is running FIFA. Im not having a go at you, but if you had read my post you'd realise Ive already explained how its not the number of tough games at all that we're worried about...

Simple logic really.

And dont get arrogant and ignorant confused ;)
 
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