We should forget about the Wellington problem and instead focus on a solution. The obvious is for New Zealand to join the AFC. The remaining nations should compete for one spot and that one spot should enter the AFC qualifications at the round two stage.
We would then retain the current system, where five teams from Asia would qualify for the World Cup.
As it stands, I can’t see New Zealand beating Qatar, Bahrain, Uzbekistan, North Korea or Saudi Arabia over two matches.
Maybe the Emirates. But not Australia, Iran, Japan or South Korea either. Now even Iraq or China.
New Zealand will just fall into the same routine as the Socceroos had for years.
Below average competition as preparation, then two games until the next four year cycle.
Koala Bear
Guest
Millster, I heard on a radio interview that some NZ officials are calling for NZ to abandon Oceania and go it alone to join AFC .. They do not care what happens to Oceania in the greater scheme of things .. But two things have to happen; the AFC have to invite NZ in and Oceania have to vote to let NZ defect to ACF... This is going to be messy, but will come to a head in 2011.. My bet is that Oceania will be invited into a greater ASIA confederation.. ~~~~~~~~ KB
Millster
Guest
Are you suggesting that NZ would join AFC with Oceania remaining as an islands-only confederation? While I agree somewhat with your qualification structure I think having an administration for such a confederation would be quite silly. For me the answer is to have all join AFC. The qualification structure gives plenty of appropriate room for the 'little blokes' All the current OFC members would play from Stage 1 which, as a home-and-away based stage, means they could play someone not so far away and you wouldn't see the Kiribatis or something have to fund a trip to say Sri Lanka or Nepal or Mongolia. For reference here is the FIFA document on format so you can see how easy it would be: http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tournament/competition/2010%5ffwc%5fqualification%5fformat%5fasia%5fen%5f55861.pdf