30 Nov 2013

NZ Football welcomes World Cup qualification discussions

5:12 am on 30 November 2013

New Zealand Football has welcomed the prospect of the Asian and Oceania Football Confederations merging their World Cup playoff spots.

Last week both regions suffered heavy defeats in the intercontinental playoffs for the 2014 World Cup.

Asia currently has four automatic qualifying berths for the World Cup, with the fifth-placed team going into an intercontinental playoff, while Oceania has no automatic spot and must also go through a playoff.

New Zealand football chairman Frank van Hattum says his organisation and Oceania have discussed the playoff pathway for several years and is pleased disucssions are now taking place between the confederations.

Van Hattum believes a pathway through Asia would be good for the Oceania winner as it could open up a high quality match schedule.

Any change in the qualification process for future tournaments would be required to be ratified by the sport's governing body FIFA.