https://khelnow.com/football/2022-11-world-football-russia-consider-shift-from-uefa-to-afc/

Interesting. Would make Asia way too big if so, so doubt it would happen without a restructure of the confederation.

Russia can fuck off

Yep - but not the Russian players fault their president is a mass murderer

By the same token though, they were expelled from qualifying for this cup and it was the right decision. 

This attempt to join Asia is just a political statement from Russia along with all the other things they are doing realigning themselves with Asia and isolating themselves from Europe. It's a token move with greater implications. We as a confederation shouldn't be accommodating it.

if they hadn't of invaded ukraine would be very handy for Australia and asia's development to have russia play here.

Hope they leave Ukraine

China   +   Russia ?

Gee ,  how  quickly  would   we   be   punted   back  to   Oceania ...

At a mere football level it would improve both the Asian Cup and ACL quite significantly, and so long term be good for Australian football. But ofc, there are the wider moral and geopolitical factors involved that are more important than Australian football.

If they wanted to join they'd have to show why it would benifits Asia to get the votes (Australia did it be selling the idea to a number of Asian countries that we'd bring european strength, something the Australians play with and the Asians have struggled with in the past, also there was a major push to move towards our Asian sphere of influence).
I can't see what the Russians would bring, most middle eastern countries, and SEA countries won't want a bar of this, as it will directly impact their football development.

Russia would strengthen the confereration. The stronger the confederation the better the competition and higher the standard, benefiting most. Also would add huge gravitas to the Asian Champions League. Imagine  WSW v Zenit St Petersburgh, sell out at Commbank, RBB going nuts. Much more of a spectacle than v Al Whogivesafuck or Casio Nagasaki

Imagine Russia and Turkey joining AFC

With the larger world cup from now on it'd at least make qualifying interesting

Turkey is on the borderline with Europe and asia are they?

Israel would be another interesting one.

Australia fighting Russia, Turkey, Israel, South Korea, Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, etc for those 4 or 4 and  1/2 or 5 Asian Spots in the world cup

It would increase the football status of Asia, but politically Putin ( whilst he is still President) could cause turmoil.

Vladivostok away days lets goooooo! 

I dont mind it, would make a good stepping stone to europe.

That would be nuts.....

Start in the A-league as a teenager as a 16 or 17 or 18 year old.

Next step, Head to Either Russia or Turkey as a 20 or 21 or 22 year old, Stay there for 2 or 3 years.

Next step as a 21 or 22 or 23 or 24 year old, head to  the big 5  of either England or Germany or Italy or France or Spain. Or head to the other solid european leagues of Holland or Portugal or Ukraine

At the minute, you'd have to have shit for brains to want anything to do with Russia.

good they have a pretty good league and some decent club sides be good for the AFC i couldn't care about politics i hope Turkey joins us as well

with the increased number of nations in the world cup i dare say it would still mean we have a fairly 'easy' route to the WC but would improve the confederation a lot



Keep politics out of football and this benefits all of the AFC immensely 

Speaking of politics in football...interesting that Qatar allows (encouraged) Palestinian flags/chants in the latest games...
Also those weird Ozil protests and confrontations by Saudis against Germans 

The World Cup of approved protests it appears....

That's how it's always been with the "no politics in football!!!" lot. It's acceptable as long as they agree with it 

As for this, after the WC, it would be good to see if there is an appetite for UEFA clubs to leave FIFA.

Maybe Russia can join China, North Korea, Saudis and African despots with their own tournaments

The revised teams from 2026.... i.e. 48 team WC

AFC (Asia) – eight places (up from 4.5).... 47 teams
Caf (Africa) – nine places (up from 5) ... 54 teams
Concacaf (North and Central America) – six places, of which three go to hosts (up from 3.5) ... 41 teams
Conmebol (South America) – six places (up from 4.5) ...  10 teams 
OFC (Oceania) – one place (up from 0.5) ... 10 teams
Uefa (Europe) – 16 places (up from 13) ...  55 nations...

Total nations... 217 nations competition  

Not including Australia, the top 11 AFC nations IMO capable of qualifying , not in any order, Japan, South Korea, Saudi's, Iran, Oman, Iraq, UAE,  Vietnam, Uzbekistan, China,  Thailand... all these nations are improving.... add Russia and qualifying thu Asia will be far more difficult than many think.... especially when the effect of the WC in the middle east has on local competitions over the next few years.... 

Between UEFA and South America you would have at least 25 +10 places 

OFC will never get a spot they will probably get 1-2 or play off spots at best or they will just join the AFC 

Midfielder's numbers there are confirmed spots for 2026. There are also two playoff spots available, with CONCACAF getting 2 spots, UEFA none, and the others 1 spot each.

it will change OFC in particular is a bit of a waste as it is essentially just NZ

TBH, Russia should have been in Asia already.

Why? Geographically Russia is mostly in Asia. But the vast majority of its population is in Europe, as are almost all of their pro clubs. I could see an argument for Kazakhstan and maybe Turkey, but even outside of where they are physically located, Russian football (as opposed to politics) would be taking a backwards step.

Because most of the country is not in Europe and they are not Europeans in much of their outlook, not just their population, there's also things like they are not in EU, are pretty much against European amalgamations. It would make more sense for them to have been in Asia. 

Tend to agree

No one 'really' considers Russia part of Europe and more of there country is in Asia then Europe - dating back to the USSR it was its 'own' thing 

they are not part of the EU, they are hated by NATO it makes more sense for them to be part of the AFC over UEFA

I personally think it would be good for Asian football, it would be good for Russian football in the sense they would make way more World cups but i dare say missing out on the UCL would be a BIG draw back as the ACL is a shit competition 

If they did, and 2026 was still a 32 team World Cup we'd be in serious trouble. They'd straight away be the best team in Asia too.

It'll never happen though. The clubs won't want to lose Champions League football (assuming they're ever let back in), and I can't imagine AFC voting them in considering how many votes countries would be concerned about competition for qualifying. Also, their ban is from FIFA, not just UEFA so it won't change anything 

At this point, I make my usual comment - time to split Asia into East and West and drag Oceania into East Asia.

Russia can be part of West. I don't want them in our confed. Still scarred by getting in and out of Kazan. Arseholes.

Would they be join regardless of any annexations by china , lol

If this did happen, which it won't, I'd want us to use it as the trigger to split Asia East and West. Bring Oceania in with us, it's a nonsense confederation that isn't moving forward on its own.

Let the corruption of the Middle East, Central Asia and Russia fight it out in the bank vaults for supremecy.

Wonder if we could snag India?

best post maxxie on this fake news

Now is not the time for discussions about Russia, wait until the war ends and hopefully Putin is removed and then these kind of things could be discussed. 

"Russian chiefs will 'discuss plans to leave UEFA and join Asia's governing body' amid their ongoing suspension from football... 'with a final decision set be made by an executive committee on Friday'"

"The Russian Football Union (RFU) is reportedly keen to exit the governing body of European football in an effort to join the Asian Football Confederation (AFC)."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11582999/Russian-chiefs-discuss-plans-leave-UEFA-join-Asias-governing-body.html?

So typical of Russia that they think it's their decision.

The important details here are 1) FIFA hasn't responded at all and 2) Russia is banned by both UEFA and FIFA so this doesn't fix the football bit and 3) Russia can go fuck itself

Man i never thought my April Fool's joke on here would become reality but here we are...

Why stop at Russia? Why not add Turkey, Israel, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Oceania while we're at it ...

Not that outlandish really.  Considering the geographic location and reach and ethnic composition of Russia itself it actually makes sense.  

Russia has been 'buffering' itself against Europe in a geopolitical sense for several hundred years now so why not play football against them.   

Russia names deadline for withdrawal from UEFA
"Russia is ready to withdraw from the European Football Union (UEFA) within two years and move to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The deadline for such a decision in the aggressor country is December 2025, when the draw for the qualifying tournament for Euro-2028 will take place"

Russia names deadline for withdrawal from UEFA
Note - This is from a Ukrainian source hence the pejorative nature of the quote.

They should try to join Oceania.  Would be great to see them getting smashed by "minnows".

Israel will never be part of AFC again because of the tensions. That's the reason why they're in UEFA.

I would assume it would be done (if it's ever done - and this is something I've wanted done for a while as well), is that it would be split among sub-confederations (with Oceania considered it's own sub-confederation) but so that the two outcomes are equal. In terms of full FIFA nations in each sub-con:

• Oceania - 11
• ASEAN (AFF) - 12
• Central Asia - 6
• East Asia - 9
• South Asia - 7
• West Asia - 12 (13 if you include Russia - considering population mostly in the West as stated earlier, is just above Iran)

That comes to 58 countries (57 without Russia), so the best 'split' would unfortunately mean splitting up East Asia, or East Asia goes to Asia-Pacific, but that would mean a 25-32/33 split (South, West, Central and possibly parts of East Asia to form West Asian Football Confederation, Oceania, ASEAN and either all of, or whatever is left of East Asia to form the Asia-Pacific Football Confederation).

If East Asia gets split, evenly and geographically, Taiwan/Chinese Taipei most likely the split line, so it would probably be Japan, Guam, Korea Republic and Korea DPR on one side, and China, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Macau on the other, and Chinese Taipei to be put on one side or the other (lets assume they stay with China and go to the West).
Confederation split would then be (Only FIFA recognised nations, and I'm going to do it including Russia, since that's the initial discussion here):
West Asian Football Confederation

• Bahrain
• Iraq
• Jordan
• Kuwait
• Lebanon
• Oman
• Palestine
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• Syria
• United Arab Emirates
• Yemen
• Bangladesh
• Bhutan
• India
• Maldives
• Nepal
• Pakistan
• Sri Lanka
• Afghanistan
• Iran
• Kyrgyz Republic
• Tajikistan
• Turkmenistan
• Uzbekistan
• Russia
• China
• Hong Kong
• Macau
• Mongolia

Asia-Pacific Football Confederation

• Chinese Taipei
• DPR Korea
• Guam
• Japan
• Korea Republic
• Australia
• Brunei
• Cambodia
• Indonesia
• Laos
• Malaysia
• Myanmar
• Philippines
• Singapore
• Thailand
• Timor-Leste
• Vietnam
• American Samoa
• Cook Islands
• Fiji
• New Caledonia
• New Zealand
• Papua New Guinea
• Samoa
• Solomon Islands
• Tahiti
• Tonga
• Vanuatu

CURRENT NON-FIFA MEMBERS

• Kiribati (OFC)
• Tuvalu (OFC)
• Northern Mariana Islands (EAFF)

Note, somewhere along the maths I stuffed up and added an extra country to the West, meaning equal geographic split, Hong Kong probably comes across to Asia-Pacific as well

See above re: Israel. Kazakhstan also was part of AFC until 2002.


Remember the limbo period when Israel was part of AFC, but everyone refused to play them so they got bounced around by FIFA into UEFA, OFC or Sth America qualifiers, until UEFA gave them membership