In my honest opinion there is no argument to stay in the AFC? 



Anyone who says 'More competitive fixtures'?  - i would argue at the cost of more competitive competition participation? we no longer qualify for youth WC and Olympics regularly. - it is why NZ have a better national team then us 

Qualifying for World cups more? if anything seeing us lose in straight sets bcuz we are in such a weak confederation with a low bar to make it to world cups has cost us more then we have gained - the worst part is being part of the AFC, rules us out from ever playing a Asian confederation based team in the group stages of the WC (like we did in 2006 the only WC game we won at that point in time) making qualifying for the round of 16 significantly harder 


I would withdraw from the AFC go back to the OFC and do something more unpopular try and change the A-League In to the O-League (Oceania-Super -League) New Caledonia could support a club possibly one or two other pacific countries add a few more Australian clubs and possibly one more NZ create a conference system (since we never going to have P/R) and focus on the region that we are actually in...    

A truly dumb idea. We need to be measuring ourselves up to Japan, Korea, China, etc., at both club and national team level, and the best way to do that is by playing regular competitive matches with them. Going back to Oceania would be throwing in the towel and admitting we're not good enough.

The AFC does need to figure out how to make the ACL more lucrative, so clubs see it as an opportunity and not a burden (and not just in Australia). I also think they should have a shorter WC qualification process, and go back to having separate qualifiers for the AC. Also, how about an AFC Nations League like what UEFA is doing? Then we could theoretically be playing the bigger Asian nations on a much more regular basis.

This is infinitely preferable to having two meaningful matches every four years, which we lose precisely because we're only playing two meaningful matches very four years (see: the Socceroos ca. 1978-2002). 

NZ look good on paper but they've still not delivered on the pitch. In the end you can have all your programs and great players at club level only to end up shit on the pitch for 90 minutes when it matters. That's exactly what Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Ireland and Scotland do. I find them all in a rut of rinse and repeating the last decade or so.

On topic, you'd be mad to give up the opportunity Asia gives us. Let's embrace this big challenge. We'll succeed and fail as we already have and I wouldn't have it any other way. The main thing is we do as best as we can most of the time. 

 That's because we are not good enough. We are an AFC cup nation at best because we cannot compete financially with the likes of Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, etc.

We're the fourth best Asian nation in the FIFA rankings, and won the Asia Cup five years ago. Let's not exaggerate.

It's davstar . He posts some absolute drivel at times and when he gets called out he just attacks posters .

Did I just read, inside the same post, someone write that NZ had a better team than Australia, and then someone else write that they look good on paper? Or have I been smokin’ the wacky weed again?

Good grief. Just good grief. Where to even begin...

"it is why NZ have a better national team then us".

I'm sorry based off what? Chris Wood?

We’re not suppose to be going backwards, but here we are talking about this.

NZ haven’t made a WCup since 2010 FFS 

That's national teams, but he mentioned the AFC Cup which is a club competition, so I think he might be talking about that. Our national team might be alright (largely thanks to players learning their craft overseas) but our domestic professional football scene is in crisis and our ACL ranking is a lot lower accordingly, coming in at 11th.

Leaving the AFC would make things much worse, of course.

Literally every comment  here is against me i haven't attacked anyone? only person who attacks people is you bro and it is literally every 3 posts i make.... issue you have is when i show you facts in why your opinions are 'generally' wrong you have a mass cry start moaning and making nonsense up. 

And this isnt attacking anyone but other then the notion that it is 'more competitive' no one has given a solid argument as a reason we should be in the AFC - keeping in mind this isnt our confederation and we have without a doubt gone backwards since joining.

I'd argue with a population of 4 million, pretty much no money and football not being very popular at all they are doing better then us. 

They literally have 1 professional team....

Making world cups means nothing for Nz or Australia as either side arent competitive in the competition and we havent been competitive since....joining the AFC....why? bcuz our youth arent getting any exposure anymore in youth competitions.

how many U/20 WC have we qualified for since joining the AFC? (1?) 

I'd rather see us go to the world cup once ever 12 years but with a side that can do something special then go every 4 years and not win a game? 

You're only looking at things at senior level you need to look at development ages in which we are not competitive anymore and not qualifying for big competitions. 

Im going to make one over-arching comment to replay to all 

You are all looking at this from a Senior Level - Socceroos/World cup - I've been saying this for 15 years and im going to say it now you need to build from the Bottom NOT the top. - by the time it comes to Socceroos it is already too late! 

Youth development is 10 times more important then senior competitive fixtures becuz we will never have the $ to have a league that is of high enough quality for us to solely focus on senior level ball (ie 15 years of AL and we got 12 teams and no p/r and the leagues salary cap is 2.1m!) 

We have made every world cup since joining the AFC but have been rubbish every time (bar 2010)  - when we qualified though the OFC (32 years) the one team we sent was actually competitive. 

I'd rather our youth teams U/19 U20s, U23s etc qualify for every tournament and risk not making the world cup then vice versa. 


AFC has done little good for us - if your looking at the hard facts you will see i have a point. But instead you have been fed a notion by a very incompetent FFA that being in Asia is superior for us becuz???? money???? (in which joining AFC has cost us loads but made us none) 

I originally supported the move to Asia but after brought the garbage the FFA was selling. 
My real issue is there has been no evaluation of joining this confederation - dare say the FFA has avoided it becuz it would probably 'piss off' the AFC but we need to have a real look at if this path and  if it is one we want to stay on? If we at least had a independent assessment on if this confederation has been good for us compared to where we were (or could be) then i'd accept that but it would need to look at all levels of  football not just seniors. 

If you guys cant at least accept there needs to be a review then i dare say football is finished

You haven't addressed how joining OFC will exactly make us better at developing youth. Unless you're suggesting a couple of youth World Cups every four years will change that? That's a load of dross. What about our youth playing in competitive Asian tournaments every year? Also we have seen a marked over the past say 3 years in our youth qualifying for international tournaments, so early signs are promising. It's what happens before those Youth Cups that count and if we are in OFC we are not getting any more money than we are now by not possibly competing at Senior World Cups, Asian Cups, qualification games and all other Asian football tournaments. What on earth is the point of qualifying for Youth World Cups if you have little desire of qualifying for Senior World Cups like you have alluded to? A lot of this is about the financials and it's complete lunacy to say all our problems are solved by playing Tahiti, Vanuatu and Tonga just so we have guaranteed shots at U-17 and U-20 World Cups. 

As I mentioned, if that is really the criteria then the early signs are promising as our youth teams are becoming more competitive which probably has more to do with when these youngsters were born in relation to the Curriculum et al.

Our problems lie more than just in qualifying for Youth Cups and really it comes down to money and the sporting landscape of Australia atm.

Your asking the wrong question, how has being in Asia made us better? we are not 'asian' we are actually based in Oceania you need to ask yourself the same question 

Youth world cups is were 'big' clubs sign young players to develop? if Daniel Arzani went to a U17 WC he might of got picked up earlier and gone to a better development club then Celtic. 


Have these 'Asian' competitions made us better? 

Im going to say you're all talking a load of 'dross' if you cant answer this question honestly bcuz using the term 'early signs' is why we are f**ked right now. We have bee part of this confederation for 15 years? where does early end??? when is it that this was a mistake? when do we evaluate the actually positive and negative impacts of how it has affected our football? 

Stopped there.

Davstar. Our very own alt reality lunatic fringe. 

They said the same thing to the guy who 1st suggested the world was round....

Still havent heard a single good argument on to why the AFC is good for Australian football though? 

I don't think you will because I think your arguments are about the wrong subject. I think your arguments have little to do with OFC vs AFC and a lot more to do with the destruction of youth development. If that is properly addressed then I suspect your opinion may well change.

In other words the FFA thought that going to the AFC would make us more competitive but undercut that move by a series of decisions that ensured our are youth development led to us being uncompetitive.

OFC - Participation in 1 World Cup Finals EVER
AFC - Participation in World Cup Finals at EVERY attempt
That might count as one? Unless you would argue that participation in World Cup Finals is not good for Australian Football?

So we want to go back to Oceania because its gotten too hard to compete with Asia, its a case of I told you so when we first joined Asia in 2006 that this path was only going to get hard given how football is popular in Asia and the money they are investing into youth development.

Its like life, if the challenge is hard do you walk away or you tackle it and challenge to improve yourself and become a better person to me thats why has happened when we joined in 2006 is this was always going to expose our flaws and test ourselves how serious we want to get better as a football nation.

Is this wake call that our youth development is flawed? Yes

Is this a wake call to take our football development seriously? Yes

These things were rarely questioned in the Oceania days as Australia used to put in cricket scores against these minnows of world football and they learned nothing from them and a coincidence that we never qualified for a World Cup for 32 years in that period.

Going back to Oceania is basically saying 'I give up' or 'its too hard now' and I dont think we want that dont we? 

The FFA took an eye of their ball for this, they underestimated how difficult Asia was going to get.

Arnie warned John O'Neill and F Lowy to invest in the future in 2007 and look where we are in now?

Of course it didnt help that the people employed from other sports didn't understand this sport and the challenges it was going to face into the future and now we are paying the price for it.

We should only consider going back to OFC if we ever lose our record for biggest win in international football. 

Daniel Arzani's barely played in that u17 World Cup and that was a sub appearance against Germany if im not correct. 

The move to Celtic came from his World Cup displays along with his performances in the aleague before that.

Dont disagree that playing at youth world cups brings more attention to our players from scouts around the world, something that has been missing in the last decade because qualifying through Asia is more challenging than putting cricket scores in Oceania.

How do they address is not easy but Arnie explains it well they need more games, many more games actually.

Problem is the FFA and their grand ideas for the AL have not only isolated it from Aus but also AFC. If they were realistic (smart) they would realise they cannot compete and so should set up as a feeder league to the richer leagues in the region and not only could the teams make money from transfer fees, Aus football would improve as there would be many more of our players playing professionally and there would be a production line.

Just look what happened when salary cap was cut, all the older players went OS for their payday which in turn has opened up opportunities for youngsters

OP your drunk go home.