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OFC 2026 WC Qualifying

Now 3-0 in favour of New Zealand as Elijah Just scores in the 80th minute. As it stands NZ will become the second non-host country to qualify for the World Cup after Japan.
 
New Caledonia in the intercontinental playoffs. A tall order but their journey continues.

I think it's a joke UEFA aren't in this. It'll likely be a central location too. Have Denmark fly 12 hours to play on a goat track and see how they like it.
 
JS96 said:
New Caledonia in the intercontinental playoffs. A tall order but their journey continues.

I think it's a joke UEFA aren't in this. It'll likely be a central location too. Have Denmark fly 12 hours to play on a goat track and see how they like it.
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They might have to play the Socceroo's yet?. Anything can happen..
 
JS96 said:
New Caledonia in the intercontinental playoffs. A tall order but their journey continues.

I think it's a joke UEFA aren't in this. It'll likely be a central location too. Have Denmark fly 12 hours to play on a goat track and see how they like it.
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NoMates said:
They might have to play the Socceroo's yet?. Anything can happen..
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So the format of this is, 6 teams will qualify for the playoffs;
  1. OFC Runner Up (New Caledonia)
  2. CONCACAF 4th place
  3. AFC 9th place
  4. CONMEBOL 6th place
  5. CAF 10th place
  6. Extra slot for the host confederation (in this case, CONCACAF 5th place)
Essentially, the format is the same as the old Club World Cup, although instead of specific continents being given a bye to the final four, the 2x highest ranked nations will be given that position. I did a breakdown of how this would look if Australia were to make this stage, and it's highly possible that we'd be seeded in this. New Caledonia, obviously not.

It will also be held in either USA, Canada or Mexico as a test run (similar to the old Confederations Cup)

As for UEFA - well.. they already have the highest amount of qualifiers (16) - though it seems when they host the World Cup, they will get the extra slot for these playoffs, so will be interesting to see how they restructure their format for this.

EDIT: Based off current group standings etc around the world, this is where that's at:

OFC - New Caledonia (confirmed)
CAF - Gabon/Mozambique/Namibia/Burkina Faso (3 group games remaining, top 4 runner ups to playoff for playoff spot)
AFC - UAE/Qatar/Iraq/Oman/Saudi Arabia/Indonesia (3 games, then second group stage of 2 games, then a home and away playoff - 2 of these 6 will automatically qualify)
CONMEBOL - Bolivia (5 games remaining)
CONCACAF - Final round competitors yet to be determined. Currently they will be Honduras, Cuba, Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago, Curacao, Haiti, Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala, Jamaica, Suriname, Puerto Rico. These will be split into 3 groups of 4 nations, with the group winners directly qualifying, and the 2 best ranked runners up advancing to the intercontinental playoffs.

For the above, assuming the standings stay the same, and then the highest ranked nations win playoffs/advance in further stages, the make up of the intercontinental playoffs will be:

OFC - New Caledonia
CAF - Burkina Faso
AFC - Saudi Arabia
CONMEBOL - Bolivia
CONCACAF - Honduras
CONCACAF - Haiti

Using current rankings, the bracket would be:

Round 1 (I think this is randomly drawn, but I have just done a 3v6, 4v5 format here)
  • Honduras v New Caledonia
  • Bolivia v Haiti
Round 2 (winners qualify for World Cup)
  • Saudi Arabia v Honduras/New Caledonia
  • Burkina Faso v Bolivia/Haiti
 
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Jokes aside, the OFC qualification path for 2026 is a pretty lightweight process. Even ignoring the quality of the countries involved (excluding NZ), the winner (NZ) only had to play five matches, four of which were at home and the other at a neutral ground. I do see that in UEFA for 2026 there will be countries that qualify who will do so in six games, but at least they are home and away.

I get that the geography and facilities have an impact on how qualification matches can be organised, but the process used for 2026 was a long way off what is desirable.
 
Keeper66 said:
Jokes aside, the OFC qualification path for 2026 is a pretty lightweight process. Even ignoring the quality of the countries involved (excluding NZ), the winner (NZ) only had to play five matches, four of which were at home and the other at a neutral ground. I do see that in UEFA for 2026 there will be countries that qualify who will do so in six games, but at least they are home and away.

I get that the geography and facilities have an impact on how qualification matches can be organised, but the process used for 2026 was a long way off what is desirable.
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Yeah this is the one thing I didn't like about the OFC qualifying. Only 5 matches to qualify. Even taking to account a miracle of a first round playoff winner reaching the World Cup, that would have been a maximum of 7 games.

I think the two qualification paths (in my opinion) that have left a lot to be desired this time around, are UEFA and OFC. AFC could even be revamped a little to avoid the extra group stage that's coming for the second chance round.
 
Pasquali said:
Perhaps we get rid of the seperate groups and do it similar to uefa club comps.
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For AFC, what I would have done, looking at the way the 2026 one was set up,

Is have less playoff rounds at the first round, and do 10x groups of 4, instead of the 9 we got.
Then, still have the top 2 advancing to the next stage, and have 4x groups of 5, where the top 2 of each group qualify directly for the World Cup.
The 4x 3rd places can then have a playoff round (whether it's a single robin group stage, or perhaps just a single elimination knockout bracket held over one international window) to determine the AFC Intercontinental Playoff winners.

Would mean, for a team that somehow qualifies for the World Cup after winning a first round playoff, 16 matches to qualify (which is 2 games less than it would be under the current structure)

You can probably get this vibe from me in my post in the UEFA thread, but I absolutely despise playoffs in WCQ unless absolutely necessary - either right at the start, or as second chance/last chance playoffs.

EDIT - I might actually re-do a hypothetical qualification path around the world in the General WC thread for the lulz
 
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