Australia going to the WC?

[Dell19]

Well Fifa have given Oceania their own qualifying place for the world cup so they will almost certainly qualify as long as they can beat the mighty New Zealand. Although I'm not completely sure what they did to deserve their own place, especially since its at the expense of a south American team.

 

[Hitro]

I agree, the previous qualification rounds have shown that they obviously don't deserve the place more than the South Americans.

 

[Suppersalmon]

damm i dont think they should have there own place the old method worked fine i got to see high class football of a south american team while u cant usualy see this with Australia

 

[KingWilly]

Although I'm biased here, I think the direct entry for an Oceania team (most likely Australia, but possibly New Zealand) will do a lot for football (or soccer as we call it here) in the region.

Football facilities would be greatly improved with the injection of cash that qualifying brings and the thought of playing in the WC would bring many new kids to the game. Hopefully, this will improve the quality of teams in the national competition as well as providing players for overseas competitions.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

Yawn...An attempt to try and boost soccer here which will not work, and which few care about.

 

[Crimson Sunrise]

I'm not sure Oceania deserves direct entry.

 

[Darkness]

Why not? Why shouldn't every continent have at least one direct entry to the WC? This seems fair to me... This isn't about the quality of their game, just about fairness.

 

[lord_byron_nz]

as long as they can beat the mighty New Zealand[END/QUOTE]

New Zealand have been improving a lot of late. We beat(an admittedly weak) Australia to win the OFC nations cup this year. We have also had good international results against teams like Korea, Chile, Poland and Estonia. Some of our players are getting into good teams (Ivan Vicelich @ Roda JC, Danny Hay @ Leeds, Chris Killen @ Man City etc.) and we are beginning to drastically improve our admin side as well. NZ may seem easy beats but every 3 or 4 attempts we will beat Australia, and that's got to be good for Oceania.

I don't think WC qualifying is designed to ensure the top 32 nations are there. Otherwise Europe would get about 24 places, South America 4 and the rest of the world 4. Not having an automatic place for Oceania because it is supposedly weak makes a mockery of having Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Costa Rica in the cup. These are sides that Australia and, on their day, NZ could beat. Maybe a fairer system would be to give Asia an extra place and have us fighting with them for 4/5 spots. But making us play teams like Uruguay or Colombia ain't gonna help anyone.

 

[Dell19]

New Zealand may be improving but most people would expect Australia to win. Saudia Arabia and China qualified for the last WC because Japan and Korea had already qualified so there was less competition...

 

[Shabbaman]

Originally posted by Dell19
especially since its at the expense of a south American team.

Check the rostrum: http://www.fifa.com/Service/MR_A/48832_E.html

It's also Europe that loses a play off (fair since germany is already placed), and concacaf also gets another play off...

This means, more 'great' games like those against china, iran, saudi arabia...
For the quality of football, they should make all places something like a cross play off (number 1 of Europe vs number 1 of Oceania), and then there'd only be European and South American teams at the WC.

But that wouldn't benefit the fun of the cup, would it


I have no problem with 'only' 14 European teams, and a mere 4 from S-america, but I do have a problem with 4, possibly 5, asian countries, and another one from north america.
Why? Well, how much fun is it to have one or two 'Group of Death' and one group with Brasil, France, Saudi Arabia and Canada? That's not fair.

 

[bobgote]

yeah, i don't know about the oceania spot. I would've been happy if we just got a fairer go, i mean one home, one away against the 4th (or 5th or whatever) South American team isn't really very good, is it? I would be happy if the winner of the oceania group (or maybe the top 2) went into the asia group and played against them for a while (not just 2 games) to decide the best teams to go through there.

then again, i'm not complaining, i enjoy soccer a lot, but as Mr. Darkshade mentioned, it's not really too big a deal, it's hardly going to take the place of cricket or aussie rules for at least 50 years.

 

[col]

Originally posted by Shabbaman


Why? Well, how much fun is it to have one or two 'Group of Death' and one group with Brasil, France, Saudi Arabia and Canada? That's not fair.

But imagine if the French didnt get through ...

 

[Darkness]

Originally posted by col


But imagine if the French didnt get through ...

That's not too hard, after all they flunked out after three games in Korea/Japan too...
Oh, wait, I should keep my mouth shut, Holland wasn't even there!

 

[Crimson Sunrise]

Europe would get about 24 places, South America 4 and the rest of the world 4

More like ten from Europe, twelve from North and South America combined.

 

[Håkon]

The Oceanian teams should still play off, but play an Asian or African team instead. I think Australia is a better side than, say, Iran or Uzbekistan. Yet, the African/Asian teams can surprise in the finals, as this year's Cup showed (Senegal in the quarter-finals, South Korea in the semis, Japan in the quarter-finals).

I don't think Europe would deserve 24 places. Mighty Northern Ireland or Estonia in the World Cup?? Better to have sides which may be stronger and come from continents where football is not that good.

 

[jpowers]

I think there should be an organization of really tiny countries from which a contender is selected:
Andorra
Vatican City
Monaco
San Marino
Liechtenstein
Palau, etc.

They could still beat us Americans 4 out of 5 times.

 

[Dell19]

England, Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Poland, Denmark, Russia, Sweden, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Slovenia, Finland, Scotland, Bulgaria, Norway, Czech Rebulic, Ireland, Wales

Well thats a list of 23 moderately good teams and I haven't had to include Estonia or N Ireland just yet. Although the good European teams would have guarenteed places if Europe had 24 places... So its not very realistic.

 

[Shabbaman]

Originally posted by jpowers
I think there should be an organization of really tiny countries from which a contender is selected:
Andorra
Vatican City
Monaco
San Marino
Liechtenstein
Palau, etc.

They could still beat us Americans 4 out of 5 times.

I've never heard of a Vatican soccer team...
But to strengthen your point: why not just work with an A- and B-poule, like they do with ice hockey (and tennis)?

 

[Håkon]

With A or B pools, you would have to stage eight or nine pools every year. So FIFA have to choose nine venues, a new one for every year, because relegations and promotions would be quite idiotic to have every fourth year as teams' strengths and weaknesses change. The main argument against having pools is tradition. The system has been the same (although expanded quite a bit) for forty years, with World Cups and European Championships alternating every second year. Besides, if, say, Andorra had to travel to Palau to play an I pool tournament match, the cost is enormous for a 22-player squad with coaches. Another disadvantage is that it takes time to move through the pools. If the system had been based on World Cup qualifiers in 1990, Norway would have been the G pool in 1991. In 1992 and '93, Norway suddenly had a very strong side which qualified for the World Cup and eliminated England (or the A pool). If this had happened with the pool system, Norway would only have been promoted to the E pool.

Personally, however, I think it is a very good idea. It gives everyone a chance to compete against teams of the same strength, and it takes away the qualifiers which shorten the club season. San Marino football supporters need no longer despair over 0-10 losses, and can follow tight international matches (although San Marino v Fiji may not be the great crowd attractor). It follows on what national associations do inside the country - most football associations have leagues with promotions and relegations. It would also be much more fair than letting corrupt people in FIFA decide how many teams shall qualify from which continent.