I know others might not agree but I was one of the Australia in
Asia advocates. (as you all might guess from my posts asking
Australia to host the Asian Football Cup and to consider them to
join the Asian Games as well).
It is not entirely correct to state that it will be more difficult
for them to qualify through Asia rather than Oceania. It will be
easier if Oceania had direct entry to the world cup but if they had
to play off against the fifth placed South American team then it is
not really that easy. The fifth placed South American team is as
good as or even better than even the best Asian football
countries.
Uruguay, Colombia, Chile and Ecuador can hardly be branded easy
teams.
Do you know that (and you might be surprised to hear me say this)
if I had to choose between Australia gaining direct entry to the
World Cup via Oceania and qualifying through Asia, I will actually
choose to join Asia and qualify through Asia? Why? Because it will
be more beneficial to Australian Soccer in the longer term and
bring about a greater benefit to Australia to join Asia and for the
A-League Soccer Clubs to play in the Asian Champions League rather
than be caught in the Oceania group and play against third rate
teams.
Australia will never improve playing the countries in Oceania like
Fiji, Cook Islands and Samoa. By joining the Asian Soccer
Confederation it will give them so many more competitive matches
which will sharpen their competitive edge and improve their
competitiveness. Playing against the strong teams in Asia like
South Korea, Japan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain will benefit
them.
The biggest problem the Australian soccer team faced in the past
was lack of competition which boiled down to lack of quality
opponents to play against in compeitive fixtures. Thats why they
stumbled against the fifth placed South American team in the World
Cup play offs.
Another benefit of Australia joining Asia is it will be the fairest
way of them to qualify for the World Cup. If they qualify directly
through Oceania it will be considered too easy for them and if they
join South America it will be too difficult for them, therefore by
joining Asia it will be neither be too easy nor too difficult. In a
way it is a good, fair solution and arrangement and gives a good
balance between easiness and difficulty.
And one last point I wish to make is that they are geographically
closer to Asian than other continents like South America so from
the geographical perspective at least, it makes more sense for them
to join Asia.
Feel free to reply.
