Australia is a very talented soccer team with a track record of finishing in the top 16 of the World Cup finals. No matter how you look at it, Australia is a team from the Oceania region, but they do participate in World Cup qualifiers and the Asian Cup. Why is the Australian team limited to Asia?
Australia representative
The Australian national team is a national team organized by Football Federation Australia (FFA). The Australian national team has a nickname: the Socceroos. The Australian national team was formed in the 1920s and first played against New Zealand in 1922. After that, we participated in the Oceania qualifiers and were aiming to qualify for the World Cup, but due to Oceania’s limited number of spots, we were unable to make it to the World Cup finals.
intercontinental playoffs
The problem with the Oceania qualifiers was that there were not enough spots for the World Cup. The slot for Oceania was 0.5, so even if they won in the Oceania region, they would not be able to participate in the tournament unless they won the playoffs against South America and Asia. Therefore, it was not a good idea for the Australian team to belong to the Oceania region. Below are the Australian national team’s playoff results. If you look at the following, you can clearly see how the Australian national team is crying about the playoffs. Their only win was against Korea in 1974.
| Year | Match |
| 1974 | 〇 Australia – Korea × |
| 1986 | × Australia – Scotland 〇 |
| 1998 | × Australia – Iran 〇 |
| 2002 | × Australia – Uruguay 〇 |
Participation in AFC
The Australian team was able to participate in the final round of the 2006 World Cup and made it to the last 16, but now they had to make a big decision. The Australian Football Federation requested membership in the Asian Football Confederation. However, this request has been repeatedly rejected by FIFA in the past. However, this request was finally approved in 2005. As a result, the Australian national team will become a member of the Asian Football Confederation and will participate in the Asian Cup and the Asian World Cup qualifiers.
Why Australian national team chose Asia
Australia will be represented in Asia. The reasons behind this are as follows.
High probability of participating in the World Cup
The continents closest to Australia would be South America or Asia. Judging from Australia’s ability, if they join South America, their chances of participating in the main tournament of the World Cup will be low. However, since Asia is one of the lowest-level continents in the world, I thought that if we joined, we would be guaranteed a spot in the World Cup. This is why Australia wanted to join the Asian Football Confederation.
You can play warm-up games
In Australia’s Oceania region, New Zealand was the only strong opponent. The Australian national team has always won overwhelming victories in the Oceania regional qualifiers, and was unable to strengthen the national team. However, if you join Asia, you can aim to strengthen your team through matches against powerful teams such as Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. It also has an advantage in the sense that it aims to strengthen itself over a long period of time.
asian champions league
By joining the Asian Football Confederation, Australia will be able to compete in the Asian Champions League. Although the level of the Asian Champions League is inferior to Europe and South America, it is the next continent. There are many strong teams in the Middle East, so we can aim to strengthen our team even at the club team level, which was another advantage.
asia cup
Australia can participate in the Asian Cup by joining the Asian Football Confederation. Until 2015, if you won the Asian Cup, you could also participate in the Confederations Cup, so this was both a strength and an advantage for the Australian team. If you only think about the Confederations Cup, there are advantages to being in the Oceania region, but being able to improve through friendly competition through the Asia Cup is a big advantage.
Watch the Australian national team
The Australian national team can be watched live on a variety of video streaming services. We will introduce it in the article below, but if you are interested, please register.
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