Why does the Australian soccer team compete in the Asia and is a member of AFC?


The Australian national team is currently a member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).Australia is the only national team to have been a winner of two confederations, holding the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) four times between 1980 and 2004, as well as the AFC Asian Cup at the 2015 competitions. 

Image taken from Wikipedia (2017) 

Now there is a question why Australia is now a member of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) rather than (OFC) and how is that possible?

Countries can cross between continental confederations if they obtain the approval from the confederation they are contemplating to join and the Fifa Executive commission.

The Oceania members were struggling for many years because Australia was too powerful in (OFC) and blocked the way of the other 11 nations. meanwhile for Australia is also beneficial to join AFC for these 3 simple reasons:
1. Better chance of qualification because the winner of (OFC) has only 'half a place' in the World Cup, and the winner of the qualifiers requires to win another play-off upon another nation.
2.Greater opposition through the qualification by playing with stronger teams.
3. More income and bigger market from advertisement and tickets sold comparing to Oceania market and capabilities.

Farshad Ghodsi
15/10/2017
References:
1. socceroos 2017. Our History 2017. Available at: https://www.socceroos.com.au/our-history/. (Accessed 15 October 2017).
2. Wikipedia, 2017. wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_national_soccer_team. (Accessed 15 October 2017).
1. thesun 2017. Our History 2017. Available at: https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/4596734/why-australia-play-football-in-asia-world-cup-fifa/. (Accessed 15 October 2017).



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