The AFC Champions League is a highly over rated comp to take part in. Played at night mid winter, against champions of Thailand, Vietnam and the like. Filled with players we know nothing about & would soon forget. Only the Japanese & Korean teams would draw any sort of crowd once the novelty quickly wore off.
No one turns up for these games in Aussie. WSW's fairytale title win seems an age ago. Welnix would just likely lose even more money.
No one turns up for these games in Aussie. WSW's fairytale title win seems an age ago. Welnix would just likely lose even more money.
Fair enough, although I think the novelty might last a little longer for a NZ team seeing as we don't have our national team playing constant qualifiers/games in those countries. Personally, I have a strange sleep/work schedule so would love week night late games in NZ or middle of the night matches in asia even if it's against a club from a country I've never heard of, the more football the better.
Not sure what the prize money is like just for qualifying, but if the team did well (a bigger if than even qualifying) it might not be a money killer for Welnix. Middle of the winter would be a problem though if it doesn't overlap with the A-League season.
Plus if the Nix won the AFC comp we could get an Auckland v Wellington match at the CWC, how ridiculous would that be!
The trouble with the Phoenix is whether they'd be considered an Australian club - given they play in Australia after all. If that were the case then they'd only be allowed five non-AFC, non-Australians which would mean they'd have to sign a whole squad of Australian players specifically for the AFC CL. That would kind of defeat the purpose, as the players who qualified the team wouldn't be able to play, or that the A League team would feature mostly Australian players which would defeat the purpose of having a professional New Zealand team.
Albirex Niigata in Singapore faces a similar quagmire in that they're a Japanese team with mostly Japanese players. They've won several titles but are still ineligible for AFC competitions due to being a 'foreign team' in their own league, which would be the precedent probably even if the 'different confederation' issue was ignored. It also would probably the main obstacle for the Phoenix if NZ ever were to ever be accepted into AFC.
If they did accept the New Zealand players to be the domestic, then the inverse would happen, all but one of the Australian players signed wouldn't be able to be registered. That would be the better scenario as it would force a focus on signing New Zealand players, but also the far more unlikely one.
There was an RNZ interview the other day with OFC General Secretary Frank Castillo where he outlined the extent of what the MoU would likely entail. On the national team side it's sounds like more friendlies between members associations of the two confederations. He said that the OFC teams would just be paying for their flights, with the accommodation, transport and food costs taken on by the hosting AFC teams with most games likely to be in Asia. That would probably start next year.
He also said it opened up the possibility for AFC national teams to play in official OFC competition, which would be great, but that it would have to be kept separate from World Cup qualifying, which could mean the Nations' Cup gets separated from WCQ. If they could get five AFC teams to give a clean 16 for the OFC Nations' Cup, that could make it a really decent competition. Countries in Southeast Asia you'd think would be the most likely to take up any invitation, and would bring some more value and credibility to the competition.
On the club side he said that they were looking at making a Super Cup-style tournament for the professional OFC Super League, set to be up by 2025 with at least seven teams participating. That would involve the winner/runner-up of the OFC SL comp playing the winner/runner-up of the AFC Champions League, and also possibly the winner/runner-up of the OFC Champions League - which would remain amateur, separate and below the Super League - against winner/runner-up of the AFC Cup. The timeline for that would be around 2025 or 2026.
Adding 5 AFC teams to OFC Nations Cup has merit. Both CONEMBOL's Copa America & CONCACAF's Gold Cup have invited teams from outside their Confederations.
The OFC Nations Cup is scheduled for sometime next year at the moment. It hasn't been held now for 7 years (PNG 2016). Could make some sense for NZF to send a U23 team, if it's to happen before the 2024 Paris Olympics.
2024 may make it hard to invite any AFC teams, as they will be still in 1st round AFC qualifying (all teams). If you played the OFC Nations Cup in 2025, after 1st round AFC World Cup qualifying, alot of the weaker East Asian teams would be available for an invite having not made it through to 2nd round AFC WC qualifying.