Oceania qualifying.

Day -832. WorldCup2018.

Yesterday I lamented how the 10 teams in the South American confederation go though a 2 year qualifying process to end up with four and a half qualifiers. Meanwhile, the 11 Oceania teams play qualifying rounds for over two years to end up with half a spot; that is the winning team in Oceania plays against the team finishing 5th in South America.

And again, the 53 European teams get it all done in a year. What makes the Oceania process even more drawn out is that there was a preliminary round, starting last August, for the 4 weakest teams, from which one moved on. So by September 2015 they were down to eight teams. In May round 2 starts after which the 8 teams are whittled down to....6, And so on we go to Round 3, and end up with 2 teams who play off to earn the top spot in Oceania.

In their defence these teams don't get to play much football and so the qualifying has to be set up in such a way as to allow for the maximum amount for matches. So while we may chuckle at Papua New Guniea playing New Caledonia on May 28th, for those 2 countries it is a huge event and, as I have mentioned before the qualifying is their World Cup. I come from a small footballing country. I know what it's like.