New Zealand Football and the Oceania Football Confederation are behind the move to join the final stage of Asian qualifying and they have pitched the idea to Fifa. Two pathways have been mooted.

The first is status quo, where the Oceania winners play off against the fifth-placed Asian side a la New Zealand v Bahrain last year. That is the most likely option for 2014.

The second is the scenario mentioned above, where the winners would go into Asia's final group of 10 (two pools of five teams).

Meanwhile, NZF chairman Frank van Hattum said the national body would do all it could to capitalise on the All Whites' success by securing some high-profile internationals.

"If everyone's successful and they all get big contracts, then getting the players away when you've got a small window and 36 hours is taken up in travelling, it's a big ask. But we're working on a couple of things and hopefully they will come to fruition. We want to reward the public."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/fifa-world-cup/all-whites/3858771/All-Whites-keen-to-mix-it-with-Asias-best

Even better: West Asia joins African confed. East Asia, Oceania and Concacaf merge into a Pacific confed. 8 WC places each. Each is a much better geopolitical outcome with massive commercial opportunities for both. The Pacific confed would rival UEFA within 20 years at both club and WC level.