Oceania wins direct World Cup berth

[Craig]

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/ausp...reut/index.html

Oceania wins direct World Cup berth

MADRID, Spain (AP) --Oceania has been given an automatic place to the 2006 soccer World Cup, FIFA announced Tuesday after a meeting of its executive committee.

FIFA's decision means Australia, which regularly wins the Oceania qualifying group, is likely to secure a World Cup berth for the first time since 1974.

In previous years, the winner of the Oceania qualifiers was forced to face a low ranked team from a tougher confederation in a home and away playoff series to reach the finals.

Oceania has only been represented at the World Cup finals twice, by Australia in 1974 and New Zealand in 1982.

Australia lost in play-offs against Iran in 1998 and Uruguay in 2002.

FIFA ratified the decision by the six regional confederations when it met to decide the makeup of the 32-team tournament in Germany.

The other confederation which has improved from the last World Cup is CONCACAF, representing North and Central America.

CONCACAF wins three and a half places, which is a gain of half a place. This means that the team that finishes fourth in the qualifiers will have to play a deciding match against a team from another confederation.

The losers are Europe and South America, which will each lose half a place.

There was no change for Asia, which had four and a half places in the 2002 World Cup, including South Korea and Japan, and Africa, which will against have five direct berths in 2006.

There will only be 14 European nations competing in Germany rather than the 15 who took part in Japan and South Korea at this summer`s finals. Thirteen of those nations will go through qualifying, with Germany qualifying by right as hosts.

There will be no intercontinental play-off place open to European teams. The Republic of Ireland qualified for this year`s World Cup by beating Iran over two legs.

[BeTheReds]

So that pretty much means the Aussies are guarenteed entry into the WC every time.


What do you think are the world's greatest soccer rivalries?

For me...

USA Mexico
Korea Japan

[MellowDrama]

That's kind of bull. They should throw OFC into the Asian qualifying pot and let them duke it out with Korea, Japan, Saudi, Iran...

[BeTheReds]

AFC is overcrowded as it is adding 8 more nations to that would not make any sense.

I think this is a good decision becaus it guarentees participation from all 5 continents.

[rakovlam]

They did once, Australia failed to qualify in 98 because they lost the playoffs to Iran. I would love to see Kewell, Viduka, and the rest of the Aussies in the WC

[atyc]

Originally posted by MellowDrama@Dec 19 2002, 02:37 AM
That's kind of bull. They should throw OFC into the Asian qualifying pot and let them duke it out with Korea, Japan, Saudi, Iran...

Agree, once they have played the Asia countries and lose, everyone would know they don't deserve to have direct berth to World cup.
There are only two teams in OFC might have a chance to beat the top teams in Asia, New Zealand and Aust. Basically, they only have to play two matches in order to qualify for the World cup. The rest of the qualifing matches are against, what, Fiji, Tonga...etc. Nothing against those small island countries but we all know the kind of standard they play.

[specialK]

i dunno, with the conmebol (south americans) and uefa (europeans) losing half spots in spite of being the strongest confederations, i think fifa is sacrificing quality in order to appease oceania. it's sickening. like an affirmative action for soccer. :gross:

[BeTheReds]

Well I think it's sickening that they have this system of allowing half of Europe to go for free with even mediocre qualifying runs.


They shouldn't have regional based qualifiers, but make it a huge tournament with only the last 32 making it to the WC finals.

[specialK]

i still think that a team like the netherlands (who didn't even qualify for wc korea) could beat australia or new zealand a good amount of the time.

They shouldn't have regional based qualifiers, but make it a huge tournament with only the last 32 making it to the WC finals.

heh, that'd be interesting, actually. they'd have to be creative with setting up the bracket or the country that plays fiji, faroe islands, and monaco would get a pretty freaking easy ride.

[BeTheReds]

Yea, the netherlands probably could beat Australia a good part of the time, but the fact remains that they lost out when there are 14.5 available spots for Europe so they have no excuse. The World Cup is still heavily favoring Europe above all else, and that's because that's where all the best football talent in the world is, and also because there are a lot of small countries that kick ass in soccer there. Can you imagine if instead competing as individual countries, but making an EU superteam?

Logistcally the supertournament would not be feasable as there are over 200 or so countries in the world. Therefore it would be necessary to have single elimination from the beginning of the tournament, and this would also not be good because soccer is a low scoring game, and on any given day, any team can get lucky. That's why they have group play in qualifiers so that it allows for people to just be lucky or unlucky sometimes.

[specialK]

i'm just saying that i don't believe that oceania should get a guaranteed spot. there's no denying that going through fiji, samoa, and micronesia to get through the world cup is exponentially easier than playing against teams like england, france, italy, spain, etc...

granted it is the "world cup" and not the "world minus oceania cup", but i feel that it kind of waters down the overall quality level of the cup. but who knows, it may turn out okay... i'll be the first to admit that i didn't expect the US or Korea to fare so well after their dismal performances in France 98. australia in the round of 16 would be a shocker.

[BeTheReds]

Originally posted by specialK@Jan 8 2003, 06:12 AM
i'm just saying that i don't believe that oceania should get a guaranteed spot. there's no denying that going through fiji, samoa, and micronesia to get through the world cup is exponentially easier than playing against teams like england, france, italy, spain, etc...

granted it is the "world cup" and not the "world minus oceania cup", but i feel that it kind of waters down the overall quality level of the cup. but who knows, it may turn out okay... i'll be the first to admit that i didn't expect the US or Korea to fare so well after their dismal performances in France 98. australia in the round of 16 would be a shocker.

Going through fiji samoa and micronesia is easier than England France and Italy to get to the WC, however, in Europe 14 of 52 teams qualify while in oceana only 1 of 8 does. Top 1/8 vs top 14/52... You do the math.

Australia in the 16 would be a shocker, but think of it.. Fiji in the WC? Proposterous! Can you imagine if a surprise oceana team slays the australia or new zeland giants only to be sidelined by the 15th place European team?