Nelsen Calls for NZ move to AFC

Nelsen Calls for NZ move to AFC

Says he said this in his book 'Road to the World Cup'

I still don't get why Nelsen and a few others are persisting with this.

I'm starting to think that this desired move is purely financial more than anything (can't deny that right to anyone).

I still think that if anywhere NZ wants to go, Oceania will come with it as a 'package deal' as the remaining smaller nations are too weak and too small to have a confederation on their own.

That is partly why I was proposing that "Oceania to CONCACAF" move a few months ago. The other Oceania nations would be loath to release NZ and I'm not sure if Asia wants NZ (you have the FIFA hurdle as well, they would need to approve any Confederational move like they did with Australia in 2005).

F..king shoot me if you want for what I have said, but really, a 'left-field' solution may be the way for Oceania and New Zealand football to move forward. Having a mouthpiece like Nelsen is great but you also need good off-field negotiators to help the cause.

We don't need to start this discussion again.

Is it that hard to comprehend that a lot of people think that the best thing for football in this country is not necessarily to practically auto qualify for junior world cups, and for the allwhites to only play 2 years out of every four. Asia are our neighbours and for the same reasons that it made sense for Australia to join Asia, it makes sense for us.

Joining CONCACAF makes as much sense as joining CAF or UEFA or CONMEBOL.

Edit: Agree we need good off-field negotiators before anything will happen.

I also think you need to read the comments about Asia in the media not as coming from a sense of entitlement, but coming from a position of looking to what is best for football in this country.aitkenmike2010-04-17 23:22:40

It makes more sense to break up AsiaFC as it is massive compared to all other confeds. Oceania should then become part of a Pacific Rim confed with Korea, Japan, Australia, etc (but not N. or S. Americas).

Only 2 problems with this though:
1. we would probably never qualify for a World Cup ever again
2. the Mullahs in charge of the AFC empire would never let their empire be split up anyway

ah well. a cheap and easy slot into the World Cup Finals I can live with...
the ant2010-04-18 22:54:22

Again good comments Mike.

I suppose (looking externally I must admit) that I am pushing the 'left-field' solution for NZ and greater Oceania as I feel that:

1. The remaining Oceania nations won't let NZ leave it
2. I'm not sure if Asia will take NZ (this is the 'good off-field negotiator' bit, NZ will have sell its case pretty well to the AFC if part (1) above is triggered)
3. I'm not sure FIFA will allow either (1) and (2) from above to happen.

Nelsen's comment have been covered before. I'll leave it at that.

Aren't there a few Asian nations wanting to jump ship to Oceania? The likes of Indonesia or one of those places, who are currently stuck at the bottom of Asia, barely get anywhere, and who have average national teams?

Would it be better to get some of the marginal Asian nations to jump to Oceania to get more competition, rather than the major jump to AFC, and get some of the best of both?

I am with the camp that says the All Whites will get nowhere staying in Oceania as it currently exists.
But that doesn't necessarily mean jumping to AFC, if we can get AFC nations to jump to Oceania.


Maybe we should get the winner of The Apprentice on the job! Ard Righ2010-04-19 15:55:19

This is a very interesting idea.

Good thinking outside the box.

yup.. a bit like my pacific rim confederation idea but without the powerhouses to dominate it
I like it.. sounds plausible if these SE asian countries were already considering it themselves.
I mean, who wouldn't be keen to be in a small confed with an easier ride into the World Cup!

Stroke of genius, Ard Righ!!!


would still have to be agreed to by AFC in the end

the ant2010-04-20 20:57:17

And there you go. Phillipines and Malaysia are other SE Asian nations I've heard that may want to jump to Oceania.

But hey, 10 points for creative thinking.
diego's son2010-04-21 02:28:06

I have suggested that idea of AFC nations jumping to OFC years ago, but not many ran with it saying that noone is interested in traveling too far and that it would cost too much. Another problem is that they would not be able to complete in the AFC challenge cup which has some cash benefits/incentives for them that OFC has not got.

If we have enough AFC nations with suitable FIFA rankings who likes to jump across, the OFC could make claims to have a full whole WC spot and not .5 spot. But it can't be that more beneficial to them in the AFC set up that they have already. I'm all for AFC's South East sub-confederation to join up OFC, but AFC is not going to let go .5 of a place because marginally weaker AFC nations decides to jump ship.

However, it's not a bad idea to pursuit in order to get more out of it. It could be more mutually beneficial in the long run as having more nations in the OFC and getting extra attention for the SE nations.

Theres more money& progress with joining the AFC then that of Oceania. Look at PNG, They wanted to join The AFC back in 2007, Then there was some type of inhouse fighting etc and the AFC told them to get there act together before anything else comes of it  - OFC lifed there ban on PNG and gave them a O-League place to try to keep them in OFC. But i dont know how long that will last.

Royz2010-04-21 03:29:28

ASEAN teams are not that much stronger, and frankly they are the only ones in the AFC within reasonable distances of OFC.

PNG has some internal problems and has a long way to develop their domestic programmes. PNG will get better development in the OFC than AFC, it just took them a bit of thinking on their behalf.

However although it makes geographical sense for PNG and Solomon Islands to enter ASEAN as they are closer, it makes more "racial" sense [more kinship rather] to stay with OFC. The Pacific Games are there for the Preliminary qualifying rounds so, it does not make sense to break that WC pathway. Of the OFC nations besides NZ, only Solomon Islands would have a reasonable case to enter ASEAN/AFC. Up to this point I'm somewhat surprise they haven't done so.

Oceania would fold if either country moved. Oceania doesn't want to give it its autonomy.

As Graeme Seatter said on here ages ago:

1. Oceania nations need to approve anyone leaving it
2. New Confederation (AFC or another one) need to appove new team joining it
3. FIFA need to approve both points (1)and (2) aboves

I'll f..king say what I want mate. If you don't like the words I write, tough. As long as I don't personally insult you or degrade/threaten you then you don't have anything to hang your hat on.

I wasn't stating anything non-factual in my post. Nor did I state anything controversial. Or anything to put you or anyone else down.

If you don't like what I post, ignore it. How many times have I posted on here since the finals series, 3 or 4 times at most.

I've reserved my right to comment on the Aus vs NZ game until AFTER the match is played, so you won't hear from me until then really.

What does this have to do with whether it is a good idea for us to join the AFC?

don't know how much acting there is there Frankie

Not on this forum, can't remember which one because it was a number of years ago before YF existed. It was maybe bigsoccer.com or football.co.nz or another forum, it was a long time ago.

However having said that, in good AWB fashion, I also suggested the idea of OFC to join up with CONMEBOL to increase the number of countries with each other and exchange football resources and lift the playing standard. The traveling would be less than being in AFC and we would have to lift up the tempo so we would not get beaten often. It wouldn't have to be against their superstars, but their local players would still give us a headache and after a while we would have to get ourselves sorted out in a ruthless way if we are to complete big time.

The CONMEBOL confederation is well off and for them to have 0.5 place extra would be tasty. But I would think it should a length of time of ten years of seeing how it would improve and develop football for the OFC nations and then if it didn't go well, then OFC will have to reform again. The pacific nations would have pull finger as well.

I doubt whether this would be viable as the difference of football skills between the two confederations are huge although it had a mixed reaction to be honest.

How noble of you.

When will we find out our qualification route for the next World Cup?

Its looking entirely possible that nothing will change as per this news article on the homepage.

Id be happy enough to keep things the way they are. Hopefully with the easy route guarenteed we will get more financial backing for the game as we all now know qualifying is possible and we should be pushing to qualify as often as possible.

And further to the above is this AJ132010-04-28 14:28:52

Strengthening Oceania by skimming off some South East Asian nations is about the smartest idea I have heard for quite some time. Geographically it all makes sense, its right on Oceania's western boundary. Logisticall it all makes sense, flight times are managable. Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and a few other smaller nations of that area would be a great addition to Oceania.

Its a good idea, anything to see the Island nations branch out and be able to play against new opposition. I think they would do quite well against south east asian nations