FIFA payday helped raise club standards, says Oceania confederation

New Zealand's Auckland City, bidding for their fourth successive OFC title and a place at the FIFA tournament in Morocco in December, host Vanuatu champions Amicale in the second leg of the final after a 1-1 draw in Port Vila last week.





The winner of the Oceania final will be guaranteed a US$500,000 payday with more on offer if they advance past the initial playoff match.

"The carrot of the Club World Cup over the last six or seven years ... has been something to aspire to," OFC spokesman Gordon Glen Watson told Reuters on Thursday.

"We have seen the standard of competition in the top four or five teams really lift. If I cast my mind back to the first (OFC) competitions the scores were 10-0 or 15-0, nowadays the margins of error are really tight.

"We're in a situation this weekend where a single goal could swing it either way and that's a good position to be in terms of the health of confederation."

Auckland City, while an amateur side, have punched above their weight as Oceania's representative at the Club World Cup, including making the quarter-finals of the 2009 tournament in Abu Dhabi - a finish that earned them more than $1.5 million.

Their results had helped the other teams within the Oceania region, Watson added.

"Amicale are a club that has emerged over the last three years. They reached the final in 2011 but it was predominantly with players from Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands," he said.

"This time around (owner) Andrew Leong has wielded the chequebook and got in a foreign coach who set about a recruitment policy for what are essentially professional players.

"It has really boosted football in Vanuatu. Amicale have a real feel that come Sunday they could do something very special."

Auckland will take a slight advantage into Sunday's match at their small Kiwitea Street ground after Emiliano Tade scored a vital away goal in Port Vila last week in front of a crowd of 10,000.

"There is a small advantage there for us, but it is too small for us to try and play around with that," Auckland coach Ramon Tribulietx said. "We need to make sure we have a bit more of the ball than in the second half in Vanuatu.

"We need to be very detailed in our defending and try to look at this game as a one-off match."





(Reporting by Greg Stutchbury in Wellington; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)


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