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Fiji game - Now in Fiji... WTF ?

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Fiji game - Now in Fiji... WTF ?

How's my driving? - Whine here

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) advises that the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa TM, OFC Preliminary Competition ï¿½ Stage 2 match between New Zealand and Fiji has been rescheduled to take place in Fiji on November 19, 2008.

The fixture was originally scheduled to be played in Auckland on October 13, 2007 at North Harbour Stadium however FIFA postponed the match after Fijian goalkeeper Simione Tasmanisau was denied an entry visa into New Zealand.

Fiji FA and NZ Football requested that FIFA reschedule the match to Samoa on June 23rd, 2008 but after closer examination of the request and considering the difficulties encountered by the Samoa Football Soccer Federation to host the match in June FIFA agreed to relocate the fixture to Fiji in November at the request of all participants.

New Zealand won 2-0 when the two sides met in the first match of the OFC Nations Cup at Churchill Park in November 2007. Ivan Vicelich and Shane Smeltz scored the goals in front of a crowd of 6,000.

While Vanuatu and Fiji are now definitely out of the running, New Caledonia have moved to within a point of group leaders New Zealand, who have a game in hand over the islanders. The home-and-away contest between these top two countries in September will decide the fate of the Oceania group.

How's my driving? - Whine here

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Shouldnt matter were NZ play Fiji. They should have it all wrapped up by than.

A dog with a bone :)

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Seriously, this has got to be illegal - even by Oceania standards.

2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa TM, OFC Preliminary Competition ï¿½ Stage 2 Matches:

<>

MATCH

RESULT

13/10/07

New Zealand

Fiji

P-P*

17/10/07

Fiji

New Zealand

0-2

17/11/07

Vanuatu

New Zealand

1-2

17/11/07

Fiji

New Caledonia

3-3

21/11/07

New Zealand

Vanuatu

4-1

21/11/07

New Caledonia

Fiji

4-0

14/06/08

Vanuatu

New Caledonia

1-1

21/06/08

New Caledonia

Vanuatu

3-0

06/09/08

New Caledonia

New Zealand

06/09/08

Fiji

Vanuatu

10/09/08

Vanuatu

Fiji

19/11/08

New Zealand

Fiji

Looks like its a one-off away fixture v New Caledonians as well. FFS.

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

No draw's not full. There is a NC game here as well.

How's my driving? - Whine here

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

I was taking the piss. Oceania. The skid mark of world football.

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

"at the request of all participants." FFS. Fiji. Two home games. This has got to be illegal - even by Oceania standards.

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Cant be illegal if we agreed to it. "at the request of all participants" suggests that we did

Allegedly

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Of course it's not illegal. Whilst FIFA prefer teams to maintain their home advantage and to go to a neutral venue as a first alternative, the reality is that teams often surrender home advantage and play a home match as an away fixture instead of neutral. It is quite common in the Asian WC qualifers in the early rounds. It's not ideal, but NZ have apparently requested it.

I wonder if we could have got Winston to re-consider or whether we'd gone past that. Winston re-consider? Who am I kidding?

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

On the basis that we'll do the business against NC and we'll have already qualified for the next stage I say we thumb our noses at Fiji and send the Feverish XI to play them.

On that note I am therefore available for selection.

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

That is inspired...

...although it does depend on the date and the Phoenix's schedule. We may not be willing to release players from Fever Zone obligations.
Hard News2008-07-02 12:45:13

How's my driving? - Whine here

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Hard News wrote:

That is inspired...

...although it does depend on the date and the Phoenix's schedule. We may not be willing to release players from Fever Zone obligations.

3 words - FIFA International Window

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

I think, as we will have already qualified, we should send a team of NZFC talent, with a couple of the Nix thrown in for good measure, especially those who may not get a lot of game time this season, like Christie, Brown and perhaps Costa. There's no sense in bring back any US or Europe based players for it so why not give it a go?

Nix, Leyton Orient and Alloa Athletic supporting schmuck.

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

I think it is better to play Fiji at home because it is more of a challenge/better build-up to play in hot conditions and having 15,000 fiji supporters behind their team.

It would be nice if it is all wrapped up by then. I do agree though about whether it would be worth bring home overseas players for that. The problem is though our road to SA 2010 doesn't involve many games. We need our best team playing together as often as possible.

If we build it, they will come...

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

TheJam wrote:

I think, as we will have already qualified, we should send a team of NZFC talent, with a couple of the Nix thrown in for good measure, especially those who may not get a lot of game time this season, like Christie, Brown and perhaps Costa. There's no sense in bring back any US or Europe based players for it so why not give it a go?

Certainly! If we have already qualified let's send a team of NZFC only players. Be good experience for them (win some first caps) + a nice wee break in Fiji and kind of gives Oceania the finger too at the same time.

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

What? Our AWs have precious little time together as a full strength side. With a huge home and away game against Asia we will need every single game we can get, especially ones that fall in FIFA Windows where we should be able to guarantee our release of players

Why do NZFC players need experience??

james dean2008-07-03 02:52:59

Normo's coming home

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

The only way the Fiji result can mean anything is if NZ only take 1 point from New Caledonia. If New Caledonia win both games, then NZ are out. If NZ either draw both games or win at least one, then the Fiji match is irrelevant.

In that case, it wouldn't be a huge surprise to find that the Fiji match gets cancelled completely. FIFA have canned difficult matches that make no difference to the final outcome in Africa as recently as the 1998 qualifiers. (For the Euros, UEFA did it in 1992 and again in 2008.)

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

i realise that it's not your idea SINZ, but it's a bit naff

and football descends to the level of reality tv ... "parts of the contest that did not affect the outcome have been editted out"

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Yeah I'd rather they played it. And played it in Wellington.

To be fair to FIFA, they only end up doing this when there are political situations that make getting the game staged a problem.... such as with NZ v Fiji!

The list of canned WC games (excluding single team withdrawals or forfeits) are:

WC98 Asia R1 G2 Syria vs Kyrgystan

WC98 Africa R2 G4 Gabon vs Sierra Leone

WC94 Africa R1 G3 Angola vs Togo

WC94 Africa R1 G2 Congo DR vs Swaziland

WC90 CONCACAF R3 Guatemala v El Salvador

WC62 Europe G4 Netherlands vs East Germany*

WC58 CONCACAF G1 Netherlands Antilles vs Guatemala*

WC34 Europe G1 Estonia vs Lithuania

*These ones were canned specifically because travelling players could not get visas to enter the host country.

And in a similar vein:

WC34 Europe G8 Germany vs France

Both had already qualified, so there was seen to be no point in playing another qualifer.

Same thing for the Euros:

Euro08 G1 Azerbaijan v Armenia

Euro08 G1 Armenia v Azerbaijan

Euro92 G1 Albania v Spain

Euro68 G3 Austria v Greece (original game was abandoned, but never re-played)

[I have a complete WC and Euro match database as if you can't tell]

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

SiNZ wrote:

Yeah I'd rather they played it. And played it in Wellington.

To be fair to FIFA, they only end up doing this when there are political situations that make getting the game staged a problem.... such as with NZ v Fiji!

The list of canned WC games (excluding single team withdrawals or forfeits) are:

WC98 Asia R1 G2 Syria vs Kyrgystan

......

[I have a complete WC and Euro match database as if you can't tell]

frightening

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Cant see how they got away with it. That being said, I can't see us not winning Oceania

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

The game will never be cancelled

Normo's coming home

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Why not? If the result is meaningless to progression and politics are getting in the way of staging it, then it would fit the pattern of previous WC Qualifying fixture cancellations. With neither federation being financially strong and with presumably NZF having to foot the costs as NZ caused the situation, I daresay it would be an opportunity to save some money. If I understand correctly, it would require the agreement of both national FAs and then the approval ofy the Oceania Federation and FIFA.

Personally, I think it will go ahead - but to say it would never be cancelled requires either inside information or an ability to ignore the precedents set in previous world cups.

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