🚀 go-pugleaf

Nick Hughes wrote
>Australia's Football (=Soccer) Federation were celebrating last week because
>FIFA - the world governing body - decided to disband our Oceania Zone
>(Australia, New Zealand and some Pacific Islands) and lump us in with Asia.
>This is seen as a boost for football in Oz. Our national & club teams will
>compete in large Asian tournaments. More importantly, our path to the World
>Cup will be through Asia, a fairer method and better chance. Previously, we
>would win our little zone then face a playoff against some team from another
>zone. Scotland, Argentina, Iran & Uruguay have all knocked us out. As a
>result, Australia has not qualified for a World Cup since 1974.
>
>What happens in bridge? We have our Oceania Zone (Australia, NZ & some
>Islands) and are likely to keep it. The quality of bridge at the top is not
>so great out here but we (OZ & NZ) have 50,000 registered players, much more
>than any Asian country (though China will catch upsome day soon). That's the
>raisin d'etre.
>As a result, our Zone gets a place in the Bermuda Bowl (always goes to OZ or
>NZ) and sometimes two places (depending on how well we both did in the
>previous Olympiad).
>
>Another zone is Pacific (Far East) Asia, who have their own B Bowl
>qualifying tournament, sending two teams to the finals. Australia and NZ
>attend this tournament as guests (the results the Asian teams get against
>our teams don't count for their purposes!). Australia has not won the Far
>East Open Teams since 1972.
>
>I think the WBF should follow the football example and disband our Zone,
>adding us to an expanded Pacific Asia zone that would presumably qualify 3
>teams to the B Bowl. The PABF CHampionships would become more meaningful,
>etc. It's in our interest to seek greater involvement in Asia - bridge,
>business, politics, culture. Hmm. Starting to ramble a bit ...
>
>What do people think?

   Most decisions of this sort are made piecemeal, ie they consider [for 
example] Zones 6 and 7 and whether to combine them.  I think a proper 
overall look at the setup would be a good idea, asking such questions as

Is the Zone method correct for WCs?
What would be a good number of Zones?
What criterion should there be for which Zone a national organisation is 
put in?

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