Our FIFA Future
Anyway, if Oceania does stick around, the Oceania team needs to be involved in Asian playoffs sooner, preferably at the stage we're at now, the Asian top 10. Its not good enough that Oceania basically get a free pass to a home and away play off to get to the World Cup.
[edit] not very constructive, sorry. I'll just say NZ putting in a decent showing against Asia's #5 (or even beating them) would, you would hope, put NZ in a better position to send themselves toward Asia.aussienixfan2008-09-04 17:53:35
My only concern here is that the other Oceania nations will get left behind, if as expected, New Zealand consistently win the Oceania section.
There's another thread here somewhere which also suggests splitting Asia into two federations -West Asia, and East Asia & Oceania. More practical for cash strapped nations that can't afford travel. Also, more Oceania sides would get exposed to a higher level of football.
As an aside, the Asian Champions League is already split West-East until at least the quarter-finals.
The problem is it's very difficult for us to join AFC primarily because of financial reasons, along with some political/administrative ones (i.e. FIFA). The other side of the coin is that we have next to nothing to offer AFC to get them to help us out financially and pressure FIFA to get us in. This leaves us in a vicious cycle - staying put makes more sense financially, but is a ruinous move football-wise in the long run. And if our football doesn't improve, AFC will stay disinterested since our commercial attractiveness to Asian countries won't change any time soon.
Our main hope right now is that FIFA realise the futility (they probably do, in fact) of OFC, and actually do something about it, maybe along the lines proposed above of maybe doing the first two rounds of qualifiers on regional basis, and having the final round confederation-wide. But even this would cost a lot of money. No easy solutions here I'm afraid.
and make a south asia-pacific federation
with all of the oceania football countries, australia, indonesia malayasia cambodia etc and india, sri lanka.
i Just think this would be much better, like have 1 direct spot for the world cup,because the team who wins the group is not going to be not chumps and 1 play off spot. All of the stronger sides in the main draw already and then the lesser nations e.g new caledonia east timor singapore play off in a preliminary group with 2 of them to go up into the main draw
What do you guys think?
and make a south asia-pacific federation
with all of the oceania football countries, australia, indonesia malayasia cambodia etc and india, sri lanka.
i Just think this would be much better, like have 1 direct spot for the world cup,because the team who wins the group is not going to be not chumps and 1 play off spot. All of the stronger sides in the main draw already and then the lesser nations e.g new caledonia east timor singapore play off in a preliminary group with 2 of them to go up into the main draw
What do you guys think?
http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/blogs/scottmcintyre/indian-football-establishing-foothold-132902/
In closing the only reason football has so much money now is because of Asia, ........ the media / government / business, did not change their mind on football because of Frank Lowy, its was first making the world cup, .......... everyone tho well its a flash in the pan they can never substain it they do not have the backers. Asia provided the backers football needs ......... Asia pays the bills not directly but because people with real big money and governments are now behind football ........ because ...........of the potential of Asian connections and influence.
Midfielder2008-09-09 00:31:17
http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/blogs/scottmcintyre/indian-football-establishing-foothold-132902/
In closing the only reason football has so much money now is because of Asia, ........ the media / government / business, did not change their mind on football because of Frank Lowy, its was first making the world cup, .......... everyone tho well its a flash in the pan they can never substain it they do not have the backers. Asia provided the backers football needs ......... Asia pays the bills not directly but because people with real big money and governments are now behind football ........ because ...........of the potential of Asian connections and influence.
Again you go off on a massive tangent.
Yes there are fantastic secondary opportunities that make being in Asia a fantastic opportunity. Nobody ever said that wasn't the case.
The fact is though that to be in Asia costs a sh*tload of money. Someone has to pay it. Frank Lowy, or the Government, or someone. The money doesn't flow back immediately.
New Zealand's Government are never, in a million years, going to bankroll NZF. So where does the money come from? You talk like you can just click your fingers because you're in Asia and come up with a bucket load of cash. Absolute fiction.
It would undoubtedly be in our best footballing interests. But I don't see where we will get the money from unless FIFA rejig the funding to give us a hand.
Basically, you pay if you wanna play system.el grapadura2008-09-10 11:07:56
Owen Glenn's in town. Give him a tap on the shoulder, he's given up on his last down-on-their luck charity case.
seriously though, I think there has to be some specifics. We hashed this all out in a thread a while ago, and somebody brought up the example of the Americas cup. Rather than a study, they were able to point to a whole whack of superyacht building contracts as an immediate benefit.
just get 3-4 more players into the EPL and ask them to contribute the interest from their lollipop fund- that ought to do it.
some good results from the 'Nix and beating China and or Belgium at the Olympics would have helped too...
pity Chris James didn't play there.
the current format of confederations you have asian teams playing in europe,oceanian teams playin in asia and south american teams playing in north america
soo stupid, a bit of common sense please?
the current format of confederations you have asian teams playing in europe,oceanian teams playin in asia and south american teams playing in north america
soo stupid, a bit of common sense please?
Turkey is geographically and culturally both European and Asian. They have the right to compete in either conference. They choose to be in Europe for football purposes. Can't blame them.
Israel can't compete in Asia due to anti-semitism. Fix the Middle East problem, then they can play back in Asia. There's football stadium violence, then there's Israel vs Iran, World Cup Qualifier.
Kazakhstan, meh, can't disagree with you.
So there's very good reasons for two of those Asian teams in UEFA.
As for Oceania - the OFC is a joke and Australia is an important market to develop. If that means putting them in Asia, so be it. Frankly, OFC entirely should be in Asia but that's just IMHO.
As for South American teams - those are too small to compete in CONMEBOL. They'd be far more competitive playing amongst other Carribean nations. So for the sake of their development, we have Guyana playing a tightly fought contest with Barbados rather than being routed by Brazil a la Australia vs American Samoa.
Sorry mate, but common sense has already been applied to those confederations.
relating to the too small to compete in CONMEBOL thing works for luxembourg in europe...
As for CONMEBOL, a similar situation applies. I'm not even sure if any of the countries in question (Guyana, Surinam and French Guiana) were independent at the time of formation of CONMEBOL in 1916, and their geo-political and cultural ties are moch more closely linked to the Caribbean than the South American continent. The reality now is that the current set-up suits everyone - the South Americans have no interest in getting these small nations into CONMEBOL as they have nothing to gain from it, and the small nations get to play at the level that's more suitable to them (there's other things here as well, but this is the basic version).
As for Kazakhstan, they decided to move to UEFA a few years back - if countries like Azerbeijan, Georgia, Armenia, etc play in Europe, then I have no problems with Kazakhs being in there too. Makes things a bit inconvenient for travel, but getting to Iceland ain't that easy too, so tough luck.
As for Israel, Robb's right, that's purely a political situation (israel used to be in AFC, they were Asian champions at one point in the 1960s), but given the likelihood of them playing national teams of countries that deny Israel's right to existence in Asia, they've moved to Europe, where I guess they'll probably stay even if by some miracle the situation in the Middle East gets resolved.
Just a little proof of what being in Asia can do .........revenue wise.
A NEW five-year deal has locked in five Socceroos matches for Queensland - and ramped up Australia's bold bid to host the 2018 World Cup.
Football Federation Australia (FFA) boss Ben Buckley announced the deal with the Queensland government that sealed at least four Socceroos matches for Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium and another for either Townsville or the Gold Coast.
But Buckley also hinted that showcasing Queensland's venues to a predicted television audience of millions would help Australia's chances of hosting the 2018 World Cup.
Sydney's flagship stadium is reeling from a disastrous year in which it has come under fire for hosting poorly attended rugby league games, and has now been snubbed by the NRL for two of its biggest matches.
Highlighting its predicament was the news yesterday that Queensland will host five Socceroos games over the next five years, emphasising the ferociously competitive marketplace ANZ is in even for showpiece events.
But of course UEFA is the better option with them being a strong confederation as well as having more world cup spots.
Not true, Russia/USSR have always been members of UEFA.