Countries competing in World Cup qualifiers for a Federation outside their Continent

[Satchmo Distel]

I wonder if we could make a full list of these? Israel and Rhodesia did so for obvious reasons, and Australia made a permanent jump, but there are others whose participation in other continents' federations has no explanation that I can find.

The oddest case is perhaps Ethiopia in 1962. Why did they do this?:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1962_F...80%93_Group_7)

[tee rex]

Pedantically, the various bits of South America in CONCACAF.

But then Australia wasn't really in Oceania either. It should play with itself.

A geographer friend of similarly pedantic mindset likes to insist that Cyprus is really in Asia. I say "pedantic", I mean friendless at parties.

[3 Colours Red]

We famously qualified in 1958 as representatives of Africa and Asia as FIFA felt Israel had to play somebody... ANYBODY... to go through and the FAW were the first to say yes.

[Sam]

If all of Turkey that isn't that tiny little corner west of the Bosphorus is in Asia, then Cyprus surely is as well, tee rex. Culturally it's up for debate, of course, but in terms of geographical location it seems pretty cut and dried to me.

Conversely, I don't think you're being pedantic by pointing out that there are three national teams in South America who play in CONCACAF. There are.

Cyprus, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana all fit into this thread perfectly, in short.

On a purely geographical area tip, however, most of Denmark is in North America and therefore it should clearly be in CONCACAF. (Yes okay, I'm being silly now.)

[Sam]

Hadn't twigged the 'World Cup qualifiers' clause; so in fact it's only two CONCACAF members who should in CONMEBOL, since French Guiana don't compete in the WCQs, what with not being members of FIFA.

[ad hoc]

If Cyprus in in Asia for geographical reasons, then surely places like Rhodes and Crete are as well. Where are we drawing this line?

[ad hoc]

(I think in the end, we can't really use geography to clearly divide Europe and Asia, since geographically there should really only be one continent - Eurasia. The argument that Europe and Asia are somehow separate entities is not a geographical one in the first place)

[Sean of the Shed]

Israel is the only country in UEFA that has no geographical claim to be a member. Russia and Turkey have a decent foothold to the continent, and even Kazakhstan has a small appendage over the line. The other cross continental country is Iceland, which geologically is as much a part of North America as it is Europe.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

If we're resorting to tectonics then (most of)Turkey would still be outside though. As would half of Iceland.

[Sean of the Shed]

If Cyprus in in Asia for geographical reasons, then surely places like Rhodes and Crete are as well. Where are we drawing this line?

French Polynesia?

[Sam]

Very true, that second post. Although if I can ignore it for a second and just reply to the first one, because that's more fun, Rhodes and Crete are part of a larger country which is in Europe, whereas Cyprus is a country in its own right (well, two-thirds of it is at least).

For some reason it's only just occurred to me to point out that therefore Turkey should be in the AFC rather than UEFA, even though I already mentioned Turkey above.

EDIT: all that was in response to ad hoc's two posts, which were the most recent two showing when I started typing.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Pretty sure Malta must lie on the African plate as well (I assume Etna is a pretty good clue as to where those collide?).

[beak]

Syria were supposed to enter the European qualifiers for 1966, but withdrew in solidarity with the African teams who boycotted on account of the qualification system under-representing their continent.

[Various Artist]

Leaving aside the geographical ambiguities around the Mediterranean islands and suchlike, I'm quietly stunned by this in Satchmo's OP:

The oddest case is perhaps Ethiopia in 1962. Why did they do this?:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1962_F...80%93_Group_7)

Furthermore, as it was a knock-out group, Ethiopia's only two matches under UEFA's auspices were against Israel – also a resolutely non-European (by most reasonable metrics) country, which surely makes for a unique occurrence. Both 'home' and 'away' legs were played in Israel, to boot.

Had Ethiopia beaten Israel on aggregate their reward would've been another two-legged tie, against their former occupiers Italy – only 16 years after the end of the Second World War.

[mirko bolesan]

That Ethiopia team won the 1962 Africa Cup of Nations. Similar to the Czechoslovak side that won the 76 Euros that featured a majority of Slovakians, the Ethiopia side was mainly comprised of Eritreans.

There was an interesting article written about Ethiopia's captain Luciano Vassallo in a recent Blizzard https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/citizen-nowhere

[My Name Is Ian]

The entire Asian qualification round for the 1966 World Cup finals ended up being a two-legged match between North Korea and Australia. Five teams applied and of those Philippines - because they couldn't afford to pay the registration fee - and South Africa - because of apartheid - were barred from entering, whilst South Korea pulled out after the mini-tournament to decide it all was moved from Japan to Cambodia (presumably the "logistical issues" that FIFA mention briefly on their website were related to North Korea and Sihanouk, the Cambodian fella). So the entirety of Asia was only represented by two matches between North Korea and Australia, both played in Phnom Penh.

[Various Artist]

I can't see that South Africa, had they somehow gained involvement, could be said to have "represented Asia" either, somehow...

[My Name Is Ian]

They were already barred from CAF.

[Satchmo Distel]

Rhodesia was in the joint Asia/Oceania section in 1970, losing to Australia, who then lost to Israel.

South Korea and Japan were the only Asian teams who took part in that farce. North Korea withdrew, presumably depriving the finals of some of its 1966 players who would have qualified had Israel not been in their section.