KEY POINTS:
Despite handing New Zealand 'most favoured nation treatment' in giving them two spots in the O-League, Oceania Football Confederation bosses are wondering if they have got it right.
"If they [New Zealand teams] can only draw 400 to their O-League games do they really deserve two spots," said
OFC secretary-general Tai Nicholas yesterday.
Nicholas was drawing a comparison between Waitakere United's game against New Caledonians AS Mont Dore at Fred Taylor Park on Tuesday with the Group B game 24 hours earlier, when 18,000 Solomon Islands fans turned up at the stadium in Honiara to watch their representatives, Marist FC, lose 2-0 to Fijis Ba.
He expects another big turnout in Papeete tomorrow when Marist play a crucial tie at Tahitian champions AS Temanava.
If Marist go on and win through to the O-League final as Group B winners, it could set up an interesting home-and-away series for Solomon Islands international Commins Menapi.
Should Waitakere win Group A, there would be the potential for Menapi to return to his homeland, where he would certainly attract a big crowd - one unlikely to be matched in Auckland.
While much remains up in the air, Nicholas has confirmed the make-up of the 2007-08 O-League, which will kick-off in November.
If the two New Zealand teams in the O-League, Auckland City and Waitakere, finish in the top four, New Zealand will have two places in the next league. They will be joined by the three next best teams from the current competition.
The sixth-placed [last] team will then play in a qualifying tournament in the Cook Islands in May against the top clubs from Papua New Guinea, the Cooks and Vanuatu, with the winner claiming the last O-League spot.
The pressure is on the New Zealand teams with just three NZFC rounds to play.
Under the rules for this season, the winner of the grand final will claim the No 1 New Zealand spot with the second taken by the round-robin winner.
Should one team win both the minor premiership and the final, the league runner-up not the beaten grand finalist will take the second O-League spot.
Oceania are looking at the make-up of its various competitions. "We have to be sure the teams put forward as champions are in fact the winners of their leagues," said Nicholas. "We don't want to have the situation where a country has a mini-tournament with the winner going through."
Fiji, as an example, hosts a two-week district tournament each year. Oceania do not see that as a bona-fide competition in finding their representative.
This weekend's NZFC matches could go a long way to finding the winner. Waitakere go into the top-of-the-table clash with YoungHeart Manawatu with a two-point lead. Auckland City are a further six points back but with a game in hand. They face a testing double-header, with their O-League game tonight before Sunday's away game against Waikato FC.
