OFC or AFC?

OFC or AFC?

Arguments for and against, anyone?

No brainer, but not going to happen any time soon.

Staying in Oceania allows our club teams to participate in and get some $ from the CWC. Age group teams automatic qualification from Oceania to respective WCs.

Going to AFC, would mean more games against tougher opposition. Possibly get higher attendances at home games, and more money for tv coverage and sponsorship.

This just cannot be repeated enough.

That's not a positive.  Getting thrashed on the world stage does very little for most teams.

For how much longer? Blatter has been pretty vocal about not letting OFC teams participate

staying oceania means we get to beat up on crap teams, make ourselves feel better and ultimately degrades the quality of player we have! We need to move into Asia, sure we'll lose badly for a while but the chagellenge will in turn help us develop better skilled players through exposure to better opponents, look at what has happened to the Aussie since they've been gone!

Though Australia had done a pretty good job of upgrading themselves through regular internationals before they went to the AFC

Sure, ask the women how they are doing. Though, they probably would be there or there abouts in Asia anyway.

OFC is now a joke really, can't stay like this for much longer.

They learned pretty quickly in the AFC cup in 2007 not to take Asian teams lightly.

Yeah, just like our U20 men's team. Wait, no...

QFT

It goes all the way to the top.At the end of the day its 10 +? votes in Sepp Blatter's pocket when it matters to him.So he won't let OFC disappear in a hurry.

Playing the devils advocate, wouldn't it be better for NZ and OFC to use loyalty to Blatter and Fifa to our advantage? He has seen with his own eyes what the best of the OFC looks like now.

 The price of that loyalty...$$$ and technical expertise commitment for next 2 WC cycles at least. I see NZF Technical Director space is still vacant ..on the website at least...Fifa should supply us with a top one ..how about a Spanish one for starters..and NZF need to commit to empowering that person at all levels, with $$$ from Fifa where required.
That way,at the end of 2 cycles if not earlier, positive change happens where it is needed.

The problem is that it's not us bossing th OFC, but the 10 smaller nations. So hard for us to use the OFC clout when we can't get anything done there if it's against the interests of the islands.

I'm quite enjoying todays banter, whereby the sheik and I both write the same reply and see who gets a post in first.

who's winning?

I think we're about even... although in some cases we've both managed to post the same points within seconds.

Nothing like a good loss to keep the keyboards red-hot, eh Charlie?

... faster than a speeding opinion!

I was thinking more Mike Skinner.

Although I am enjoying the opportunity we get once every 4 four years.

True enough El G.
You first need agreement from all OFC members (yeah, right?) a unified approach to FIFA.

That brings me neatly onto the point I was thinking of...

I believe NZ would benefit from being part of Asia in the long-term, but would the likes of Fiji, Solomon Islands, Cook Islands etc have the financial resources to compete in the AFC? Cook Islands playing away to say, Qatar, is a hell of a trip in both logistical (given most of the players are amateur or semi-pro at best) and financial terms.

Having said that, there would still be the chance for those sides to pick up points here and there, against the likes of the Maldives, Macau, East Timor etc. Could be beneficial for all in the long-term.

Split a combined confederation into divisions?

...or they would never agree on the split.  People keep mooting an East vs West split, but the West control the AFC while the East has the four currently qualified for the Wolrd Cup... so who get's the five spots ?

As the Ninja says, every chance we'd just end up playing a qualifying round against Oceania then a second round that would eliminate us before we got near a drawcard match.

Also, as discussed in some depth on the match thread today, OFC, AFC and FIFA are unlikely to back it either.

I presume if we are in Asia AFC, then the Phoenix will be able to compete in the ACL when we win the A League in  2011

I read an article by Mike Cockerill in the SMH a while ago where he said that the drums were beginning to beat for the East West split because of the recent power struggles, and also federations are starting to realise that geographically it's getting unwieldy especially with the new Asian Champions League.  Even if we became a sub- federation of a new East - Asia wouldn't that be better financially, more matches, more opportunities?

It will be an interesting fight over how the WC spots are split. 

The East would rightly tell the West they can have 1 currently seeing as they have 4 of the 5 but Bin Hamman and Co. aren't going to love splitting the power base or losing the mana of all those World Cup spots.

For the WC campaign. I really think that we should forgo the play-off with the 5th AFC team and that the OFC winners and the OFC runners-up should be playing in the two final pool groups.

I would push for FIFA to have 6 WC spots then but I am quite fine with the 3rd place getters having a play-offs for 5th if they won't move.

This way it means we have a fighting chance over a long period and play more matches against higher quality sides. Having just a play-off at the end of the campaign is just a hard jump up in the levels. By having to play in the final pool groups, we get a decent hit out and time to adjust to the speed, skill and tactics.

I feel that by entering the final stage pool group of AFC, we would be able to upgrade adequately in terms of speed, tactics and preparation.

It would be the closest to being in the AFC without being an AFC member. The campaign maybe a bit long for the OFC runners-up, but even they don't mind having a number of internationals to improve their football rankings. The real difference is that we also don't play in the AFC cup because we have our Oceania nations Cup. Also add to that of playing in the Confederation Cup, we should start adding a fair amount of high quality internationals over the 4 year period. A fair bit better than what we have now. Throw in a couple of decent tours during the 4 years then we have a better national team.

This might be a doable compromise, considering all the problems of being in AFC and spending lots of money to fit their criteria. It doesn't help the Nix too much but I am guessing that it will solve itself by declaring the Nix as an Australian team for the ACL when it comes to it.

I agree with that, although for the AFC we really would only be able to provide one member, otherwise we could potentially get 2 places at their expense.  For the AFC the current format is best for their members, they're unlikely to agree to a format change that gives less chance to their members.

Which is probably why we may need to push for that 6th spot. With the apparent weakness of the OFC runners-up, that extra spot seems good for their (AFC) greed. Of course where we get that 0.5 spot is anyones guess. However by not having the OFC runners-up and having the next best AFC team instead increases a couple of matches and another chance for a team that could still make surprise in the final group games.

Then the only problem may be having the cost for those extra games. [afterall, they did consider placing the OFC winner in the final groups instead of having the play-offs] Which again, I point to grabbing that 0.5 spot to increase the appeal.

I'm just not a fan of play-offs. I prefer group matches because you get much more out of it and feeling of a second chance. I hate to be knock out by some silly decision or stupid moment and prefer to see the overall playing strength of a team. Group games justify it better, playoffs don't. You might as well have a coin toss when it comes to play-offs.

I think All White Believer has hit the nail on the head.

In 1981 it was proving too expensive. Then, of all people, the NZ Rugby Union helped out with a quite sizable grant. I can't be sure of the exact amount, but I do remember it was quite large for the time. If anyone can dig up Russell Gray's original 'All Whites 82' book I think there is a section about it in there