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Why weren't Australia and New Zealand both in the Oceania qualification group for the football (soccer) World Championship 2010?
Question
#115157. Asked by author. (Jun 09 10 9:45 AM)
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serpa
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My soccer knowledge is very limited. This link shows New Zealand was in the Oceania Football Conference.
The top 2 teams in each group qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Finals in South Africa. The third-placed teams met in a play-off to determine who would play the OFC winner, New Zealand, in a separate playoff for a spot in the Finals.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_(AFC)
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looney_tunes
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Australia used to be in Oceania. Winning the Oceania group just leads to playoffs against runners-up or third-place teams from stronger groups, a tough task. They moved to the ASEAN Football Federation at the end of 2006, and qualified for the 2010 World Cup in the AFC Asian Cup Qualification.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_national_association_football_team
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author
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As it seems it was a tougher task to qualify directly from the Asian group (as Australia did) than to do a play-off game with nr.5 from the Asian group, as New Zealand did. (The Beat Bahrain in a play-off).
So I don't think Australia changed group to make it easier to qualify. But does anyone really know why?
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looney_tunes
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When they made the change, the playoffs they had faced for several cups were against significantly more difficult teams - South America number 3, one time, for example. That is certainly the stated reason for the change in the Australian media, and as stated at the Wikipedia link in my earlier post.
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