Oceania loses direct entry (soccer world cup)

In a stunning backflip, Oceania has lost direct entry to the 2006 Soccer World Cup after FIFA voted in favour of handing the region's spot to a South American country on Saturday night.

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FFS i totaly fuked off right about now, FIFA wanna bring the game world wide, yet they take oceania out?? what a load of croc, they just want to make South America, after the fifa board voted against the SA proposal

http://onesport.nzoom.com/sport_detail/0,1278,201588-2-27,00.html

and

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=270695&cc=3436

ill have a bigger rant when i get home

Grrrr @ FIFA

Aye?



I thought the decision was cut and dried??



The Aussies will be even more furious

I fail to see why Asia was given any more spaces at the World Cup when they allocated a spot to Oceania and took one from South America. Sure Japan and Korea did well but Saudi and China were clearly the two worst teams by a country mile. In fact after the Saudi-Germany game they should have taken a place of Asia right away, IMO Oceania should get a qualifier against the fourth Asian qualifier at the very least... If not one of there spaces outright. Taking a place off South America was always going to be a contensious move.

reason 1 for taking away entry

results - NZ's poor performance @ the confeds cup.....

does no one remember us drawing with scotland 1-1? and only going down 2-1 to a 90% full strength america who happen to be in the top 10 in the world?

everyone knew we would be killed by france...and they were lucky in some ways to get 5 past us... we held our own against Colombia, it wasnt untill we were down to 10 men, where colombia were able to over power us..

japan, that was just a poor game from the boys, all teams have them,

Brazil the so called world #1 and world champs cant even qualify for the semis.

Also....didnt aussie beat england a few months back???

oceania football isnt that week, and not a void reson to loos the place...

Reason 2 - Money problems facing Soccer Australia

last time i heard, they were on top of this problem, and were looking at being on top of it next year... qualification to the world cup pays about $1million us?? so yet another void reason

and i doubt very much countrys in South America are on the level with their $$$

FIFA have just shown what a bunch of corupt wankers they are...u can not honestly say a decision like this can be over turned just like that..esp when 100% voted in favour of Oceania having direct entry only 7months ago

with oceania loosing the spot its also rumored that a major sponser will pull out of a deal thats going to cost nz soccer millions, which will futher hender growth in nz

is it possible for oceania to tak FIFA to the international Sports Tribunal???

Thge winner of the Oceania group has to qualify against the fifth best South American team if I'm not mistaken.

Is that impossible to do?
Oceania doesn't deserve automatic right to the world cup. The world cup is for the best teams in the world. Why should superior teams be kept out so inferior teams can make it in?

sheesh I dunno, sounds like an option but FIFA vs anyone I would have to have my money on the ridiculously overpaid lawyers at FIFA



Who said sports and politics shouldnt mix again?



Isnt that International Sports Tribunal in Switzerland?

meh maybe this decision is good for the All Whites?

Maybe OUR best chance of going through is the play off with the South Americans? (is that still how its gonna work?)

Seems to me another way of looking at is, Aussie qualifying............ and just getting so much better than us via their exposure in the sporting worlds greatest stage that we NEVER have a chance of being the Oceanic representative

*shrug*

NZ needs more players playing professionally over seas and at the top club level like say the premiership in England. Unless our players are exposed to this type of football we are going to struggle against the top teams as recently seen at Confederations cup.

yes, this is true, this is the way it has been for as long as i can remember...But why should one region not get a spot, afterall it is a WORLD cup.



why dont they deserve a place? there are many weaker teams (saudi and china as jono said)in the world cup now that have an easier entry into it then what teams from Oceania have to put up with.

how do you expect a team to get better, if it isnt in the world spot light, with international fixtures, you dont get the big sponsers which brings money, which means you cant develop younger players and build a stronger team,
having a team in the spot light will get more people playing the sport thus also making it stronger.

if a stronger team misses out on a world cup, clearly its its own fault ie the netherlands, "ok we playing a shit team we will play with a 2nd grade team, we will still win"

what happens? they loose and miss out on the world cup - good job for taking a place for granted

Teams don't get better by playing at a world cup. They get better by developing and cultivating a strong player base and by having players that consistently play at a high level.

A world cup is designed to see who is the best team in the world. It shouldn't be seen as a charity event to help out developing countries. NZ got embarrassed at the confederation cup and the same thing would happen at the world cup. That does nothing for our confidence. We need to be consistently playing tests against teams that will challenge us but not kick our arses.

HAHA SUX!!

Just what NZ deserves for their FIFA rep being a stupid Fuckass... Sux on that now dickhead

Yes styln your right



I couldnt imagine how consistantly playing in the world cup finals would make a team better

I think the decision is fair enough. The money issue is not relevant as long as we have a confed cup place. Oceania has proven itself too weak to be worthy of an automatic place, if we can't beat the 5th best SA team we don't deserve to be there.

but half the teams, that make it to the world cup are weaker then Aussie/NZ yet they have and easyier entry to the cup then Oceania, that isnt right.

the world cup should be @ 36 teams imo anyway...then Oceania would be happy as we would get our spot, and South America would be happy coz they wouldnt loose a spot

i dont this this matter has ended, id expect alot to happen in the coming months, as i think SA are not happy about not having a 36 team comp

For what it's worth, I totally disagree with FIFA taking away Oceania's guaranteed spot for the World Cup finals. How the hell is the region meant to move forward when they do this sorta bullshit...

If we're gonna have to do a home & away series against another confederation's team, I think it'd be in our interest to make it against an Asian team. Playing an away game against any Sth American country is gonna be bloody intense to put it mildly. Some of their fans are positively murderous in their "passion" for their team to qualify at any costs; just ask any of the Aussie players who had to brave Uruguay and their fans before the last World Cup...

its one spot everyother continent has one why not oceania thats just not fair especially after they already gave it to us.

Wankers

That I do agree with phila.

Zenith, what a load of crap. NZ/Aussie are weaker than any of the world cup teams except possibly Saudi Arabia.

and china, they are crap too, dunno if nz can say they are better than them but australia certainly can, they have some top players in their team

Ha ha The Maestro. This decision doesn't really affect NZ any way as we struggle to beat Australia when they are at full strength.

I don't know if getting thashed at the Confederation Cup has done much for NZ soccer. We need to play against teams that are seeded 20 or 30 places ahead of us in the world standings not teams that are in the top 20.

Besides there are a large number of European teams that get knocked out in qualifying games that deserve to be in the world cup yet don't make it.

The world cup should be for the best teams and shouldn't be a charity event for weaker teams.

In saying that though I know we played well against the US and it would be good to make it to the finals again but only if we were going to put in a credible preformance.

pull your head out of your ass... FIFA's mission statement is about bringing the game to the world. the world cup is about a representation of all regions of the world, NOT the best teams in the world - otherwise it will be ALL europe and south america, and africa might be lucky to sneak one in there if they played well...

the football world cup is supposed to be different to other sports, its supposed to promote the game to the lesser nations by giving them chances on the world stage - thats why people in the oceania region fought so hard to earn our direct entry.

having it taken away is a travesty.

as someone else said, saudi are a miserable excuse for a football team, and we should at very least be playing off against the asian nations for our place - not the south americans.

Yeah fuck you too smf. Perhaps it makes sense to play teams that are actually in the same hemisphere. At any rate there's no point in crying over spilt milk. NZ aren't good enough to make the world cup finals even if Oceania had direct entry.

The best that oceania can do is to continue asking for direct entry. South America obviously piad bribes to the right people.

Can't understand why the world cup should have to cater for lesser nations. No other sport does this. As it is a lot of quality European teams get cut via their qualification matches which are infinitely harder than ours.

South Americans are a lot better at football period and while there are a lot of players in NZ it's still considered a minority sport. Cameroon are a quality team and had a good match against France.

People pay to watch the best at the world cup not the also rans. Maybe they should have a two tier world cup. The main event for all the good teams and a 'b' competition. That way Oceania would be guaranteed of a better run and may actually have a chance of winning a few games.

No point comparing soccer to other sports, it is so different in size and range of countries playing it. Also you are wrong, many world cups have representatives from different regions rather than the best nations in the world, basketball, rugby, netball, golf, I could keep going. The only one I can think that has just the best teams is hockey.

justahalf you're probably right all I'm trying to say is that automatic entry for oceania is not some god given right. It's a shame the area has missed out but we still have a chance to make it if we are good enough. In saying that though it would be a big ask to beat the 5th placed South American team.

As for golf to play in the big championships you have to be the best.

I am talking about world cup team tournaments, both amateur and professional.

All the majors have a smattering of Amatuers and old-codger past champions with no chance of winning

The Aussies beat England, and in the half against the full strength England was when they really won the game. To say Aussie's administration is in shambles is a joke even if it is true. How can you say that when countries from other regions don't even have stable governments let alone a competant football association. i don't necessarily agree with the automatic place for Oceania but to have a playoff against one of the big two confederations for the least accomplished is a bit of a joke. Although with the way FIFA have handled this I suggest OFC look into legal action, there are a great many legal avenues OFC could persue. Probably the best way to get anything done at FIFA right now.

Blatter is a cock, and he's crooked as Don King.