Proposed FIFA World Cup Expansion

Yup totally get that but he is trying to win votes by playing with something that is not broken.

He is a French git.

Leggy, would you "get over it" if Ricki Herbert shagged your missus ?

And she pulls you............ I guess 'class' is a perspective thing.

Back on topic - still think FVH is mad to push against this.

Cant believe there is any argument or doubt. We take it (the opportunity) in both hands if it gets offered, and then do all we can to win our section.

I'm torn 3 ways on this

From my world football point of view - Leave it at 32. It works.

From my NZ based idealistic PoV - Go to 40, have us join a 12-team Asian group with 6 spots up for grab. Meaningful competition including 5 games at home over an 12-18 month period with a decent chance of qualification for the big show.

From my PoV of someone who cares about NZ Football and is kinda worried about its future - Go to 40, with one spot for OFC. We play Tahiti etc, we do everything we can to obliterate them and we go to the World Cup and take all the benefits for the game in this country that come with that which we need desperately.

http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/bootroom/id/543?cc=3436

good take on it, not much love for Platini...

Please dont use FIFA rankings to justify anything. They arent worht the paper they are printed on.

Wonder what sort of backhanders old Sepp has offered FVH to oppose this ?

TBF think home and away qualification games are bigger than being at the WC without having them- Mexico playing in Wellington and all these Mexican and US supporters and who knows who else aware of us. Being at the WC wouldn't get us a high profile game like this in Welly and I don't like the idea of the WC being any larger or longer than it is.

An automatic spot for Oceania (however it is achieved) would mean entry into a 'major' competition every 2 years (assuming we beat the island teams). Its a good start, then maybe in future we can use that to build toward an Asia move and even more meaningful games. 

Don't see it happening though, unless he is stupid enough to expand the World Cup. 

Not living in NZ anymore I was wondering about the vibe in NZ and Wellington in particular about this match. Is there much publicity? Has the illustrious Mayor of Wellington Celia Waid-Down decided to capitalise on the enormous publicity this match will generate globally.

Because this will be huge. I have already seen plenty in the Euro press about the match. The Wellington game will probably be the last match to decided the last slot for the WC. The television audience will be huge. Probably into the tens of millions in Mexico alone....but there will be big interest in the USA and the rest of CONCACAF as well. Looks like plenty of Euro TV channels are going to show it.

There will be plenty of Mexican fans coming down. They will come even if all of them don't have tickets. I would imagine there will be a huge Mexican media contingent as well...rumours of at least 10 or more TV crews. Wellington is going to be a happening place that week.

So its a huge opportunity for Wellington as a city and NZ to get loads of publicity.....I suspect there will be the usual last minute "gosh this is big isn't it" and SFA will have been done before hand.

In reality this game is way bigger globally than the last Rugby WC final. The French sports daily L'equipe estimated that the global TV audience for that RWC final was about 15 million. This game would hall in 2 times that amount just in Mexico alone . Plus the game will be picked up by loads of Asian and Euro Channels. 

True. The world get Dewhurst *facepalm*

Reckon you need to read my original post properly. 

Terrible idea for the sake of the World Cup.

Would rather we joined Asia and earned it.

This is interesting...

http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/286997,blatter-flags-scrapping-world-cup-qualifiers.aspx

What's he up to now?

"I think we should try to find a solution where at the end of qualification you are in or out and not just (in a) playoff.

OK, the playoff gives more intensive action in football but for those teams it is really a hard way to go (out)."

Obviously the only way Oceania can qualify without a play-off, is by direct entry or by joining another confederation's pool play.

Is this his way of signing up to the 40 team World Cup idea? Or is this some kind of counter-proposal?

Who knows with this guy?

What about if the OFC, AFC, CONCACAF, and CONMEBOL playoff teams went into a 4 team home and away league? No more playoffs like Mr Blatter hates but enough of the status quo to not upset anyone too much. We wouldn't get as many quality games as if we went into the AFC final qualifying round but we would have got home and away games against Uruguay and Jordan as well as Mexico if it had existed this time

think of the travel costs involved - the OFC team would be bankrupted by this alone

Dont FIFA pay these ?

Was thinking broadcast rights would help cover that