27 December 2015

Small and tiny nations from Oceania did not say their final word

Many of us do not know anything about Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) region. Most Pacific Island countries who are located around Australia, mainly in the Pacific Ocean, is not considered football to be their attractive sport. Without Australia, who joined Asian region back in 2006, the OFC looks very miniscule by comparison from the other 5 confederations. With 'the Aussies' now gone, New Zealand is now largest federation within this region. And as football is not number one and top sport between these countries, OFC in general has one of the toughest way to qualify its team for any World Cup.
From 17 OFC member nations, only 11 are recognized and are members of FIFA. Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau and Tuvalu are not being eligible to be FIFA members due to its certain criteria, as these are very small islands with small football interest whatsoever. Also, the OFC does not get a direct spot at FIFA World Cup in Russia, but it is possible that a team from this confederation to reach finals via intercontinental play-off games on home-and-away basis. So those 11 nations have to play in total 3 rounds, each rounds are in groups, just for the winner to see and try its luck with that play-off game against the fifth place team from CONMEBOL zone. But when the draw for FIFA qualifiers have been made on 25.07.2015 in St. Petersburg, it looked perfectly clear that CONMEBOL will have full 5 automatic spots at the finals by just knowing the strength of those South American teams. However the OFC team must not abandon its hope and try at least to oppose strongly their giants. So far, 4 teams from Oceania were able to compete at World Cup finals. Two times each from Australia and New Zealand, with 'the Aussies' reaching round 16 for the first time at World Cup in 2006.
Currently in its second round of competition towards the final tournament in Russia 2018, 8 teams are divided into 2 groups of 4. Beginning in May, all games will be played in a space of 1 month, just to decide which 3 best teams will advance to the last round. Groups are:

Group A: Tahiti, New Caledonia, Samoa and Papua New Guinea.
Group B: New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu.

Overview in 2015 and expectations in 2016: Oceania teams each year will play 1 round, last will be 2017. Already one round played, tournament favorite New Zealand is included into round 2. With other countries' low interest in this sport, I can not see why 'the Kiwis' would have no problem to prove its superiority and qualify for the last round.

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