In Oceania, the four lowest-ranked Member Associations (based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola Ranking of July 2011, and for sporting reasons) will contest Round One.
Source: FIFA.com
The four lowest-ranked teams in OFC are: Tonga (192), Cook Islands (195), American Samoa (203) and Papua New Guinea (unranked). However, Papua New Guinea were given a bye to Round Two - being placed in second pot, at the expense at Samoa (7th in OFC).
Wikipedia says Round One will probably be staged by Samoa (no reference though) and probably that's what "sporting reasons" means.
Thanks Andrew Culshaw for pointing this out.
Perhaps you're right about sporting reasons. I took it to translate to "because these teams will get crushed, so we need to weed them out without embarrassing the region."
ReplyDeleteSAMOA FA : "This first stage is scheduled will be hosted by Samoa from the 21 to the 26 November 2011."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.footballsamoa.ws/News/ViewArticle/tabid/1064/Article/15480a62-aef0-478b-982a-114fb67d35ab/language/en-US/Default.aspx
Samoa as Round One host is also mentioned in this FIFA document.
ReplyDeleteThanks guys!
ReplyDeleteAt Nic's suggestion, I'm posting a link here to some additional discussion in another thread which relates to this topic. The relevant posts (which start on July 30) discuss PNG, their team strength, and their bye to Round 2.
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