At the exact moment Sandor Puhl blew the final whistle on Australia's World Cup '98 hopes, the likelihood of Oceania receiving a direct qualification spot for the 2002 finals evaporated into the Melbourne night. Indeed, had Australia reached France and lived up to the hopes of their expectant fans by reaching the second round, it would have almost guaranteed Oceania an automatic spot in the 2002 finals. Which, in turn, would have posed an even bigger headache for FIFA when the honchos sat down to distribute the allocation for placings for 2002. But that's another story.

It was always going to be tricky, right from the time Havelange got bulldozed into rubber-stamping the decision to award Japan and South Korea joint hosting rights. Given Asia's appalling record at the finals, it was difficult enough increasing Asia's entitlement by an extra half a place. Naturally, the Asians were horrified by the thought that only two qualifying places would be available for the rest of the confederation. And there was simply no way that the AFC would risk one of those places being 'stolen' by the winner of the Oceania group. Indeed the Asians felt so aggrieved at receiving only four qualifying places in total, an emergency meeting was immediately scheduled to discuss the situation. Amongst the most outrageous reactions was that of the president of the Asian Olympic Committee, Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad, who called for the Asian nations to boycott the 2002 finals.

This reaction caused a few smirks in high places for two reasons. Firstly, the Asians have hardly set the world on fire since the World Cup Finals were expanded beyond 16 teams, winning only three of thirty-seven WC finals matches. Secondly, his outburst came at a time when the International Olympic Committee was facing a barrage of questions over bribes to IOC members. Not surprisingly, the AFC were quick to distance themselves from the Sheikh's comments. Politics is an interesting sport sometimes....

When the initial announcement regarding the allocations was made, SU must admit to feeling a slight sense of nausea. Despite excellent results in under-age tournaments we still have real trouble when it comes to beating South American sides. That is not to say Australia couldn't qualify. Would getting a draw in Asuncion be any tougher than Tehran?

At least the Oceania winner won't have to play teams from two confederations (a la '93) in an effort to qualify for the finals. But the logic in reducing CONMEBOL's allocation from five places to four and a half has escaped us. Surely the performances of Paraguay and Chile demanded that the South Americans at least retained their previous allocation? Er, not so, decided FIFA, ensuring Australia may have a far more difficult task in qualifying than first envisaged.

Africa had been promised five places quite a few blue moons ago and FIFA faced a major backlash from CONCACAF had their quota of three been reduced, Europe had already given up a place (to Africa) so FIFA's options were limited from the beginning. So unfortunate, then, that Officials from this part of the world couldn't get to the corridors of power and lobby themselves to death.

The guts of it all appeared to be that the AFC wants to replace CONMEBOL as the confederation to provide opposition for the Oceania winner. Which will no doubt bring a heated response from CONMEBOL, and the argument will escalate until a final decision is taken, perhaps as late as February next year. Facing that scenario, Studs Up (like most other soccer fans, we expect) waited for Soccer Australia to come out in full support of the AFC's proposals. And we waited. And we waited.

And then we happened to run into a well respected journalist who works for a well respected agency. And he informed SU that when he had rung SocAus looking for a comment, he was advised that SocAus didn't have one!

This has to rate as one of the most disgraceful 'no comment's of all time. Pity you can't book someone for NOT opening their mouth….