KEY POINTS:
Waitakere United's bold showing in holding Adelaide United to 2-1 in Fifa's Club World Cup in Tokyo last week is set to bring music to the New Zealand Football Championship club's ears later today.
The Fifa executive is scheduled to meet in Japan with the future make-up of the club championship high on the agenda.
"I have had meetings with the Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke [who was at the Waitakere match] and Fifa president Sepp Blatter as well as other confederation secretaries," said Oceania Football Confederation general secretary Tai Nicolas on his return from Japan yesterday.
"They were all very positive. Sepp Blatter was pleased with Waitakere's performance. There is nothing on the horizon which will question Oceania's right to continue playing in the Club World Cup.
"As far as I'm concerned there will be an Oceania team in the United Arab Emirates for next year's competition and again in 2010," said Nicholas.
The organising committee for the 2009 Cup will meet today and is expected to confirm the same format as used in Japan this year.
After edging Waitakere, Adelaide lost 1-0 to Japanese club Gamba Osaka. Late last night, Adelaide were to play African winner Al Ahly in the 5th-6th play-off while Gamba Osaka met Manchester United earlier today with the winner to go through to Sunday's final against South American champion Liga de Quito. The loser will play the bronze match against Mexican club Pachuca.
Oceania's competition committee are meeting at present and are expected to make slight changes to the O-League aimed at providing more funding to enable better preparation for their representative at the club championship.
"With the Cup almost behind us, we are now gearing up for the rest of this season's O-League," said Nicholas. "Once our winner is found [in May] we will have money put aside to help them get the matches they want before going to [the] UAE in December next year."
In what could be a far-reaching move at today's Fifa executive meeting, there is the possibility they will decide to restrict future Olympic men's tournaments to under-21 players rather than under-23 as has been the case since the move from "amateur" to professional players.
If that happens, the 2010 Oceania under-20 tournament will be doubly important with the winner qualifying for Fifa's Under-20 World Cup in 2011 and the 2012 London Olympics.
Ironically, the top two teams - New Caledonia and Tahiti - going into yesterday's final round of the under-20 tournament in Tahiti, would not be eligible to play at the Olympics as they are regarded, in IOC eyes, as French territories.
In drawing up their future schedule, the OFC are expected to confirm New Caledonia as hosts for the 2011 South Pacific Games which will be the starting point on the long road to the 2014 World Cup.
Nicholas said there were preliminary discussions between OFC and Asian officials in Japan over the format of next year's World Cup play-offs between the All Whites and the fifth-placed Asian side who will be known by June.
"Those games are set to be played in October/November next year," said Nicholas.
