So what I'm taking from all of this:
- OFC are in no mood to change their mind on this thing (as evidenced by hiring Mai Chen) and there's nothing really conclusive enough to force them too anyway. i.e. it would have to be a fairly obvious misinterpretation for them to stick their hands up and say "oops!"
- FIFA don't want a bar of it
- We may have a chance of taking this to CAS, and win on an interpretation of eligibility or process, but that is likely to take lots of time and $$$ and most probably won't come in time to fix this before Rio anyway. So it would be a bit of a "moral victory" with the added side affect of rubbing OFC's noses in it. Ref: CAS usually takes 6-12 months, and that's not counting the appeal to OFC, playing a qualifier vs Fiji, and getting the boys prepared for Rio.
- We are public enemy #1 in OFC right now, and not making friends anytime soon. But to leave we need their permission which they obviously won't want as it would probably collapse the confederation.
- We can expect the next OFC qualifier for anything to be in the hottest and most inaccessible island they can find?
Or to put it another way, we're pretty much screwed on all counts?
Why would the OFC be that vindictive?
We are their largest member.
We are their only member with a semblance of credibility (only a semblance mind).
They are based within our country.
Seems to me their should be a supportive relationship, kind of actually reminds me of the relationship between NZ Football and the Phoenix. The reasonable person would say that NZF needs the Phoenix, the Phoenix are only viable if they have pathways to develop and sell talent and are also succesfull, therefore NZF should be supportive of them rather than going to war against them with academies, etc.
It's a case of certain people putting their own self interests in front of the good of the organisation and the game in our part of the world.