The Wellington Phoenix will not appear in this year's O-League. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The Wellington Phoenix won't play in this year's O-League after Oceania discovered it was not as easy as merely approving their entry.
Oceania and New Zealand Football had hoped the Phoenix might join the latter stages of this year's competition - perhaps a home and away playoff with
the winners of both O-League pools - to find the confederation's Club World Cup representative.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter has given Oceania two years to improve the quality of their representative or face expulsion. The best way to achieve that appeared to be expanding the O-League to include the Phoenix, who are ineligible to play in the Asian equivalent.
"The participation of Wellington Phoenix FC in this season's competition is a non-starter," Oceania general secretary Tai Nicholas said. "The O-League is already well under way and participating clubs have signed players and coaches with a set competition framework in place. To change that at such a late stage would not be in the spirit of Fifa Fair Play."
Nicholas said there was still the option of the Phoenix playing off with the O-League winner if approval comes in June or July but "more than likely we will take our time to get it sorted for next season".
Oceania, who had agreed in December to invite the Phoenix to play in the O-League, are still waiting for clarification from the Football Federation of Australia and Fifa.
One issue being clarified is how the minimum US$500,000 prizemoney would be divided should the Phoenix qualify for the Club World Cup.
It's understood the Phoenix's licence with the FFA to play in the A-League states that any prizemoney would be shared with the seven Australian clubs. But it's not expected this would be difficult to amend to ensure any prizemoney would be distributed in New Zealand instead, given the Phoenix cannot receive prizemoney from the Asian Champions League.
"It is taking longer than we thought and it's not as simple as just saying, 'yes'," Nicholas said.
"We don't want to have egg on our faces and find out that after we let them in, Fifa then turn around and say they can't go to Japan."
