wow cant beleive the lack of speculation happening after that announcement. Surely someone has traced RH's calls and figured out what area of Europe he is calling...
Kazakhstan's in UEFA, isn't it?!?
Yeah, it is, so is Turkey, Israel, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Gerogia. I suppose they are (though I think they were in the AFC for a short time?) because they use to be part of the Soviet Union like Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Not sure why Israel is, might get to much hate in the AFC? bleh?
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I have a feeling (without googling) that the old Soviet countries had some sort of choice over what confederation they fell under - Uzbekistan is in the AFC for instance.
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Israel was in the OFC for one or two campaigns in the 80s before being moved to UEFA, it would be too much to ask their national side to regularly go into Iran etc. for a football match, it just wouldn't be worth the politics.
Isreal became an AFC member in 1956, but was kicked out in the 1970s due to Arab pressure (think they were even Asian champions at one point in the 1960s). They weren't affiliated with any confederation in the late 1970s and 1980s (but they did play-off with Oceania representatives for World Cup spots in the 1980s), and joined UEFA as an affiliate member in 1992, and full member in 1994.
Kazakhstan were AFC members upon independence (affiliates in 1992, full members in 1994) - their FA had a vote on which confederation to join at the time, and AFC prevailed. But later in the 1990s there was shift in thinking within their FA, and they thought joining UEFA would be more beneficial to them in the long-run, and in 2002 they became full members of UEFA.
All the other ex-USSR countries stuck with their original choices upon independence.
Turkey have been members of UEFA since 1962 - and since part of Turkey's territory is actually in Europe, their membership isn't as controversial as some of those other ones.