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CONCACAF President Warner vows: 'We can beat Asia'

17.12.02 - CONCACAF President Jack A. Warner today expressed his pleasure at the Confederation gaining the chance to have a fourth team in 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany ? and vowed that it would become a full place after a playoff with an Asian country.

The FIFA Executive Committee on Tuesday decided CONCACAF would be in position to send a fourth team to the FIFA World Cup finals, with the Confederation?s fourth-place qualifier now playing against the fifth-place qualifier from the Asian Football Confederation for the coveted spot ? and President Warner was quick to claim: ?We can beat Asia.?

Warner had led the fight for an outright fourth place for CONCACAF but said: ?Plainly there was a lot of pressure from other Confederations too, so for now, we will have to be content with that chance for our fourth team to qualify whereas before there was none.?

CONCACAF officials pointed to comparisons of quality between Honduras, which finished fourth in CONCACAF qualifying for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and Iran, which was the fifth team from Asia to reach the finals in Korea/Japan.

?We don?t think there is any doubt that Honduras would have been in Japan and Korea alongside Costa Rica, Mexico and the USA,? President Warner said.

Along with CONCACAF, the only other Confederation to gain a place for the 2006 FIFA World Cup was the Oceania Football Confederation, which now has a direct berth for its top qualifier. The top OFC team was forced to playoff against the fifth-place team from the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL) in 2002.

Europe and South America each lost a chance to send an additional team to the World Cup through a playoff. Europe has been awarded 13 places and South America four. There was no change for Asia, which has four spots plus a possible team through a playoff. Africa will again have five spots.

Source (www.concacaf.com)