Sepp Blatter!!

He has given the strongest indication yet that Oceania will get direct qualification to the WC, stating that Oceania is a full federation and deserves this privelege.

The hope now is that the rest of the FIFA delegates will take Blatter's viewpoint.

This would be a boon for Oceania, in particular Australia (although last time we got this, we bugered it up..)

This issue will be decided in the Autumn.

Yeah, direct qualification would be a big boost for football in this region. The interest in the game would undoubtedly be the biggest winner. Unfortunately many Aussies and Kiwis don't give a toss about a sport unless their countries constantly perform well in international competitions (AFL is an exception) but if we do make it to the WC we'd have an abundance of sponsors willing to pour their cash into the national team and the cash-strapped league; which is something seriously lacking at the moment.

But as far as the level of football is concerned, i'm not sure that this plan would work; not in the short-term anyway.
The fact of the matter is that we (Australia) should've beaten Uruguay, we would've had to take on some tougher opposition in the WC and would've been expected to at least provide some sturdy resistance. The problem is we hadn't played nearly enough matches to give ourselves a stable and coherent team going into the two legs with Uruguay. I blame the Australian Soccer Board and to a lesser extent the players themselves for that, the ASB should have known that Australia's qualification to the WC was the top priority and should've been realized at all costs (even if that meant we had to play all our matches in Europe), and even though all the players were willing to play for the team, some left it a little bit too late.
The idea of just having to beat NZ and a host of other tiny islands seems kinda silly to me. I would support the amalgamation of our competition with that of Asia or the CONCACAF, i think we'd perform really well there. Asia would be good considering it's close to Europe and all. The bottom line is we need to improve and we need to play a hell of a lot of matches in order to do so. And with the ASB loitering around waiting for a God send from Platter, it's not looking like any positive changes are gonna happen anytime soon.

Missing out on direct qualification might not actually be the worst thing in the world for Australia.

( Sorry for the long post :crazyboy: )

reading the title of this i was beggining to think you were a bum boy:p

Originally posted by AberdeenFC
reading the title of this i was beggining to think you were a bum boy:p

trying to pick up were you aberdeen ? :p :p

Originally posted by AberdeenFC
reading the title of this i was beggining to think you were a bum boy:p

lol

As soon as I posted it I went "ohhhhh...SH*T!!"

lol it looks a bit funny..:crazyboy: :D