It's a fiasco. Taking one place away from South America and Europe is a scandal. I'm not even going to go into Australia getting direct qualification. Notice, I'm saying Australia, not Oceania.

FIFA, "we care about football"...

 

I think Australia were really upset at not qualifying for the last WC an this is FIFA`s way of saying "sorry"

 

(cough) television revenue (cough)



Seriously, it is the world game. And it is the world cup. And on the one hand it is only right that all the areas of the world get to showcase their talents.

But here's the kicker - IF YOU'RE GOOD ENOUGH. Oceania teams have not been good enough to reach the WC since 1982. If Australia were good enough, they would have been at WC2002. They weren't so - erm - they weren't. There should be a balance between getting a spread of teams indicative of world talent to the WC, and having a showcase of the best teams. This rule upsets the balance. If Australia had qualified for WC 2002 then I could accept this - but at the moment Oceania teams aren't good enough to deserve an automatic spot.

 

I was quite against the idea when it was up for debate here a few months ago, due to the reasons that have already been mentioned, that apart from Australia and New Zealand (that id at least 2 levels below full Aussie squad) there's nothing in Oceania. I was talking with dyertribe about it the other week and we both agreed on that Australia should move a qualification zone, for example Asia. However at this moment I am not entirely against the idea...it would be fair if all of the continents get a represenative and maybe that'll convince the other countries in Oceania to invest more in football (if it's even possible).

However.........


Giving Australia a bye into the WC doesn't guarantee they'll perform well. The Aussies have complained (and rightfully so I think) they failed in the last 3 qualifiers due to the lack of quality games. Uruguay played 18 matches with the likes of Colombia, Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina etc. whereas Australia had Fiji and an ocassional friendly with France. So giving them a bye into the World Cup is not going to help them improve, IMO.

 

some of you disgust me, its good that finally a oceania a federation gets a spot instead of playing against south america which just gives you one spot. think about it you up tight #@$*@#holes, imagine your country has no chance of getting in the world cup ever, how boring is that? oceania deserves a spot, and its not just australia amoroso, all countries in oceania have a chance. and if you think australia will get it, think wrong, we got our buts kicked by NZ. so instead of cruying for your country and being selfish, think of others ok?

 

I just wonder how they can take a place out of Conmebol.... the federation taht has won the most world cups... giving to a federation taht can't even QUALIFY to the world cup. This is a scandal.... Conmebol teams should boycott this world cup!

Love to see Sepp Blatter's eyes of a world cup without south american teams!


They should take a place out of teh asians, africans or the central americans

 

imagine your country has no chance of getting in the world cup ever, how boring is that?

thats now an argument. how many european teams have never made a world cup and probably never will? how many south american teams?

 

some of you disgust me, its good that finally a oceania a federation gets a spot instead of playing against south america which just gives you one spot. think about it you up tight #@$*@#holes, imagine your country has no chance of getting in the world cup ever, how boring is that? oceania deserves a spot, and its not just australia amoroso, all countries in oceania have a chance. and if you think australia will get it, think wrong, we got our buts kicked by NZ. so instead of cruying for your country and being selfish, think of others ok?

Dude - If you want to get a proper reply try do it without the childish name-calling... :rollani: For that reason I won't bother replying your post.

And Israel has no chance of making the WC, you don't hear me complain.

 

I hate politics.

Look although I am happy with Oceania finally getting a direct qualification spot, it it not the right way for the game in this region to go. Oceania needs to be scrapped and put into Asia, but the reality is it would never have happened. FIFA don't have the guts to tell the Asians that Australia will be put into their qualifying section.

On the other hand, how South America has less spots than Africa is beyond me, and also how Asia gets an extra half spot is beyond me. Just cause FIFA got Korea through to the WC semis means they get another spot Asia should only have 2 spots, 3 at the most.

 

Sorry it's not OK for Australia to have an assured spot but it's perfectly alright for Japan, South Korea, Mexico and the United States to have one?

Look at South Africa's path for the last World Cup - disgrace.

 

And Israel has no chance of making the WC, you don't hear me complain.

that really isnt true. israeli football is improving and your clubs are gaining respect in european competitions. you came within minutes of getting to a playoff for the world cup and your next qualifying round should be good. on the one hand, if you were in an asian qualifying zone youd have a better chance of making it. on the other hand, playing in europe is helping to improve the quality of the game in israel. i wont be surprised to see israel qualify for a major tournament in the next six years.

 

I was being half sarcastic actually, like most of the football fans here regard the game...

You're quite right, we have improved ever since moving to Europe and I prefer improving in Europe then qualifying through easy rounds and get embarassed in the World Cup. There's still a lot to work on, like the mentality, fitness, new and non corrupted football association and so on but we're on the right way.


what you said dyertribe is quite true. There are plenty of 'ridiculous' Qualifying routes in several zones and that's probably the main reason I don't mind Oceania getting a spot and my main argument is that this spot will be wasted anyway if Australia can't get a proper preparation and will only qualify to the WC to find it hard even against 3rd rate European teams such as Slovenia.

 

good luck with getting a non corrupted league. where theres money, theres corruption. it isnt an italian problem, israeli, spanish or whatever, its a problem with humanity.

 

Sorry it's not OK for Australia to have an assured spot but it's perfectly alright for Japan, South Korea, Mexico and the United States to have one?

What??


Not sure if you paid attention to the last WC qualifiers but Mexico almost didnt make it and the the United States ended up as the #3 team in North America. If any confedration deserved an extra spot it should have been North America. Australia is a mystery to me, im sure they would put on a better show than China or Saudi Arabia maybe even better than Tunisia , yet they arn't good enough to beat the #5 South American.

 

What??

Not sure if you paid attention to the last WC qualifiers but Mexico almost didnt make it and the the United States ended up as the #3 team in North America.

Yeah I did and that's exactly my point. The USA and Mexico completely bollocksed up their last campaign but still qualified.

You want to know why Australia doesn't qualify? Listen up.

We play against the usual minnow-fare that Oceania gives us then we're expected to go up a huge leap and face the fifth best South American side - who we found out we were playing less than a week before the match - and qualify in a home and away league against a team who has played 18 games against quality opposition in a league format.

It's been like that for the last decade.

1993 - We had to play Oceania, New Zealand, Canada and Argentina (not in a group but each in a home and away knockout).

1997 - We had to play Oceania, New Zealand, Iran (again in home and away knockout).

2001 - We had to play Oceania, New Zealand, Uruguay (home and away knockout).

Just for the record. Out of all of those matches we've lost only three:

1993 - Canada 2-1 Australia
1993 - Argentina 1-0 Australia
2001 - Uruguay 3-0 Australia

So what's your point? We don't deserve it? But I suppose other teams who lose 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 matches in one qualification year do.

 

No offense but I would venture to say that these teams that are losing 5+ times are porbably facing harder teams and Fiji or New Zeland. It would be awfull if Australia never got a chance but the fact is they do get shots and they just dont make the cut, you can say that you arn't prepared enough however others are under the same situation. All you can ask for is the ability to contol you own destiny at the beging of every campaign and Australia does get that, anyways Im looking forward to see how they do in the next WC.

 

It still does not take away the fact that Australia needs to beat another qualifier from another qualifying zone to qualify, right? If they do not, then they go home, and not to the World Cup. Does that mean that once they get to the World Cup, they will become World beaters? I dun suppose so. Cite 1998, when Australia has the best chance to go to the WC when they play Iran. They almost did, but blew it. If Australia do not even beat the 4th best team in Asia (at that time), what chance does it have against the stronger sides in the World Cup?

But of course it does not matter as long as Australia is there, or is it?

A better solution would have been for Australia and New Zealand to be absorbed in the Asian Zone, but I do not think AFC will like that idea. Anyway all talk of that is gone now, since FIFA has decided. Barring any upset (note: it's upset not upsets), Australia will be the first nation in WC2010. Or is it WC2006?

paw

 

If FIFA genuinely cared for the game, they'd scrap this regional bull**** and have a merit based qualification instead - teams'd play qualifiers against other teams according to the luck of the draw, and not because they're from some continent or the other. That'd be a genuine World Cup. But that's wishful thinking, I guess.

 

If FIFA genuinely cared for the game, they'd scrap this regional bull**** and have a merit based qualification instead - teams'd play qualifiers against other teams according to the luck of the draw, and not because they're from some continent or the other. That'd be a genuine World Cup. But that's wishful thinking, I guess.

This is idealistic at its best. If the first round pits England vs Tongo and it is a two legged affair, how in the world is it economic to make the English team travel half the world to Tonga and for Tonga to fly the other half of the world to play England? Eventually, the smaller nations will not take part, simply because it becomes to costly to even buy the tickets to fly to the opposing nation. This will lead to only the reacher nations having the money to take part and those who can't, too bad.

Perhaps FIFA have thought about that and they care about the game too.

paw

 

Well, small countries do not necessarily have to travel all the way... For example, the Asian Qualifiers are phased, and I've never known Nepal to play a WC qualifier here. There are always ways to make things work, and if FIFA really wanted to they could make it work, but the thing is that the WC has gotten too big and too lucrative. The game is secondary now.

 

Well, small countries do not necessarily have to travel all the way... For example, the Asian Qualifiers are phased, and I've never known Nepal to play a WC qualifier here. There are always ways to make things work, and if FIFA really wanted to they could make it work, but the thing is that the WC has gotten too big and too lucrative. The game is secondary now.

Under AFC, there are two ways in which qualifying group games are played:
1) All teams play a two-legged round-robin system in two different countries/cities.
2) Team play the traditional two-legged round-robin system in each other's home ground.

Nepal, if I am not wrong, in consultation with other less well-off nations and the nations in their qualifying groups, have always opted the first option. Until now, Singapore has always adopted the first option, with my country hosting one of the legs for all the games. This cuts down the costs for other countries, not neccessary that of the hosts.

If it were a direct knockout or even a group system, it still does not make economic sense to have England and Tonga pair up to play in England for two weeks. Cost is the main issue here. It would have been better for Tonga to qualify against its neighbours like Australia and if they are good enough, they can play England in the WC.

Even Asia is considered too big and previously, the CL of Asia has to be divided into West Zone and East Zone to minimize cost and travelling time for teams. Can't imagine how this system of qualifying will change but until then it is only a idealistic solution.

paw

 

It still does not take away the fact that Australia needs to beat another qualifier from another qualifying zone to qualify, right? If they do not, then they go home, and not to the World Cup.

Is it? My understanding was that is was an automatic place (no play-off) so a team from Oceania would definitely play in WC2006.

 

Cite 1998, when Australia has the best chance to go to the WC when they play Iran. They almost did, but blew it. If Australia do not even beat the 4th best team in Asia (at that time), what chance does it have against the stronger sides in the World Cup?

Paw in that qualification series we drew twice with Iran - 1-1 in Tehran and 2-2 in Melbourne.

Our final qualification record was:

6 wins 2 draws 0 losses GD +38

Iran on the other lost a handful of games and had no less than 3 chances to qualify. We got one - and went out on away goals to boot.

 

No offense but I would venture to say that these teams that are losing 5+ times are porbably facing harder teams and Fiji or New Zeland. It would be awfull if Australia never got a chance but the fact is they do get shots and they just dont make the cut, you can say that you arn't prepared enough however others are under the same situation. All you can ask for is the ability to contol you own destiny at the beging of every campaign and Australia does get that, anyways Im looking forward to see how they do in the next WC.

EB no offense but you're talking with a massive double-standard here.

Using CONCACAF as an example - Who were the teams the United States lost to in the last CONCACAF series? Jamaica? Costa Rica? St. Vincent & The Grenadines? Enlighten me.

Still on CONCACAF, for the record the last two times we've played Mexico - the traditional CONCACAF heavyweights - we've creamed them in tournament play 3-1 and 2-0.

So we get chances and don't make the cut? In 1993 we lost to Argentina in Buenos Aries and in 2001 we lost to Uruguay in Montevideo. The current world champions didn't even win their qualifier in Montevideo last time out, but you expect us to with a little over a week's preparation??

Want to cut us some slack or what? Or do we have to keep proving to those who simply don't know that we're good enough some other way? How about we give back the spot and FIFA send us to Brazil next time then

 

I understand your anger. In the old system Australia had to play a few sh1t teams and then play a team of much higher standard with little preparation.
On the other hand under the new system you now play a few sh1t teams and you're in the World Cup. The easiest qualifying route in the World.

It's not fair either way, so a compromise has to be reached. As was mentioned before this, I think Australia should play in the Asian qualifiers. They would then be playing at a higher standard and we would see if they're good enough.