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FIFA’s announcement that they will expand the world cup to 48 teams has raised questions about which confederation Australia should be part of.
There are currently six confederations so which of these would be the best for Australia?
AFC
Australia is currently in the AFC after a number of attempts to join previously.
In the time that we have been in the AFC the Socceroos have won the Asian Cup and the Western Sydney Wanderers have won the Asian Champions League.
Australia has strong links with Asia and demographically one in five people in Sydney and Melbourne come from Asian backgrounds.
Unfortunately Australia hasn’t been universally welcomed by everyone in Asia, by the Arab Gulf states of West Asia in particular.
Despite problems with Australia’s place in the AFC, it is a much better standard than the OFC. If we chose to go back there we might not get back into the AFC again if we changed our minds later.
OFC
With the world cup expanding to 48 teams, Oceania will be given a guaranteed place in the group stage.
Since the only decent opposition in the OFC is New Zealand, re-entering the OFC would practically guarantee Australia qualification to the world cup.
We could once again look forward to seeing thrilling goal fests like we had back in the good old days.
The commentators during the Newcastle Jets versus Melbourne City match in Coffs Harbour were still reminiscing about the 31-0 match against American Samoa.
Good times…
CONMEBOL
In a closed door meeting in 2003 between FIFA Executive Committee members convened by Sepp Blatter, the possibility was discussed of moving New Zealand into CONMEBOL.
The idea was ratified but needed the formal approval of New Zealand which didn’t eventuate at the time.
Since New Zealand has been considered for entry into CONMEBOL it isn’t too unrealistic to think that Australia could join as well to bring the confederation to 12 members.
Being part of CONMEBOL would allow Australia to play against strong South American opposition on a regular basis such as Argentina and Brazil.
At the 1988 Australian Bicentennial Gold Cup the Socceroos beat Argentina 4-1 which shows that Australia can be competitive against South American opponents.
If Australia hosted the Copa America, I’m sure it would get plenty of interest.
CONCACAF
While Australia is closer to Asia geographically we are much closer to America politically, culturally and linguistically than we are to the nations of Asia.
This also crosses over into the structure of the A-League itself.
The lack of a promotion system and the franchise nature of the A-League are similar to that of the MLS so it wouldn’t be as much of a problem for us as it is in the AFC.
With the only large nations being the United States, Canada and Mexico in this group Australia would stand a good chance of winning the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Taking part in the Gold Cup wouldn’t prevent Australia from taking part in the Copa America as well so potentially Australia could be crowned continental champions on four different continents. How about that?
UEFA
Compared to a number of nations in Europe, Australia stacks up quite well.
If Australia was a European nation it would have the tenth largest population in Europe.
Furthermore the average attendance at A-League matches is the 16th highest in the world and would be the ninth highest attended league in Europe.
It’s not like Australian teams wouldn’t be competitive either.
At the International Champions Cup in 2016 Melbourne Victory drew 1-1 with Juventus and won 4-3 on penalties.
Melbourne Victory then went on to beat Atletico Madrid 1-0 in Geelong.
Imagine if they achieved those results in the UEFA Champions League.
To borrow a phrase from the AFL, I’d like to see that.
Just on a point of interest if the AFL was an association football league it would have the third highest attendance in the world after the Bundesliga and the English Premier League.
If the A-League supersedes the AFL as the most popular league in Australia as FFA want it to be, then the A-League will become one of the world’s great football leagues and Australian teams will be very competitive in Europe.
CAF
We should definitely stay away from Africa.
Q: Why
A: Vuvuzelas
Logistics?
If you’re concerned about the travel time and cost don’t worry, you’re just not thinking fourth dimensionally.
In the future we’ll have supersonic passenger jets so distance and time won’t be an issue, and when the A-League is as popular as the AFL it will be the third best attended league in the world so teams will be able to afford it.
We’ll still have to convince confederations like UEFA to let us in but we’ll just have to cross that bridge when we get to it.
So those are the options.
Now the big question that needs to be answered is should we stay in the AFC or should we go elsewhere. If so, where to?
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