Soccer: NZ soccer bosses seek a testing path to 2014 Cup

Ryan Nelsen. Photo / Brett Phibbs

New Zealand's road to the 2014 World Cup won't be known until July after Fifa's decision to delay the draw for the final path.

But that won't stop New Zealand Football delegates at this weekend's Fifa congress in Zurich holding talks with prospective opponents.

Such discussions are likely to come before and after the main agenda item - the election of the Fifa president.

The Oceania Confederation executive has endorsed incumbent Sepp Blatter but Frank van Hattum, who will be joined by Fred de Jong and NZF chief executive Grant McKavanagh, said that didn't mean the 11 member nations would vote that way.

Van Hattum, the NZF chairman, said he would be surprised if the Oceania members did not vote for Blatter at the election - "which may or may not go ahead, given recent rumblings".

"The 11 countries said [they'd] vote for Blatter," said van Hattum. "He's been good for the region."

The success of New Zealand teams in getting to the world stage had come at significant cost and would continue to do so, but it was one his association must bear, he said.

"Look at the opportunities young kids today have. The world has changed and Fifa has done some good in helping that."

Mindful that the All Whites have to win next year's Oceania play-offs to reach the final stage of qualifying, van Hattum said once the opposition for those matches was known they would look for similar opponents for warm-up matches.

Originally it was planned the final make-up for the World Cup in Brazil would be done at the congress but that has now been put back to the end of July in Rio de Janeiro, when the full preliminary draw will be made.

The winner of the Oceania playoffs is entitled to a half-place in the final draw. That team will go into a ballot with the fifth-placed Asian team, the fourth-placed North/Central American (Concacaf) country and the fifth-placed South American team - in reality the sixth-best as Brazil have automatic entry as hosts.

Those four teams will be paired to play at home and away to find the final two countries in the 32-strong draw. In the lead-up to last year's World Cup in South Africa, NZ beat Bahrain for the final World Cup spot.

Van Hattum is hoping the Oceania representative will avoid the South American team in that draw, preferring to play either the Concacaf or Asian representative.

In the 2010 qualifiers, Bahrain finished behind Australia, Japan, South Korea and North Korea and won through to the playoff with the All Whites by beating Saudi Arabia on the away goals rule. In the North/South American play-off, Uruguay beat Costa Rica - 1-0 and 1-1 - to qualify. The top Concacaf teams were the US, Mexico and Honduras while Uruguay finished behind Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Argentina.

New Zealand is automatically through to the second phase of Oceania qualifying and will be joined in a four-way playoff - home and away - by the top three teams from this year's South Pacific Games in New Caledonia.