How else can you interpret this decision but as a blatant attempt to win votes in the far larger member-wise Asian confederation?

There are 46 members of the ACF and 11 of Oceania, vs. 40 CONCACAF plus 10 CONMEBOL gives you a 7 vote difference. With CONMEBOL happy about the guarantee of 2014 hosting, Blatter can probably still count on their support, so ultimately it's just another slap in our federation's face (see (A Vote For USA 2014 FIFA World Cup) for my thoughts elsewhere regarding the non-rotating aspect of FIFA's hosting rotation plan).

See ("We Didn't Change Anything") for my analysis of the 2010 World Cup Qualification System.

All Articles Indexed for the Updated Topic: World Cup 2010 Qualification Setup
U.S. Receives First-Round Bye In World Cup Qualifying | Yahoo Aug 24, 07 | go to article