All About The All-Whites

The national men's team, the "All Whites" (the colour of their shirt - in contrast to the national rugby team, the "All Blacks") have a FIFA world ranking of 89th out of 204 listed national teams as at 18th February 2004. Qualification for the World Cup Finals generally depends upon the results achieved against the generally higher-ranked Australian team (83rd of 204 listed national teams as at 18th February 2004). The "All Whites" have appeared once in the World Cup Finals (Spain 1982). 

The decision by FIFA in December 2002 to allocate the Oceania confederation one automatic place (instead of the Oceania winner having to play-off against another confederation team from South America or Europe) has boosted the chances of the "All Whites" appearing in the World Cup Finals in the future. However in June 2003 FIFA reversed this decision and the winner of the Oceania confederation qualification games are now likely to play the fifth-placed South American team, although the other play-off pairing of Asia and North/Central America has yet to be confirmed. 

The Oceania qualification games for the 2006 World Cup Finals in Germany will see the 10 Pacific Island nations playing in two groups in June 2004 (Group A: Tahiti, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, American Samoa. Group B: Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Tonga, Cook Islands). The winners and runners-up from those tournaments will then join New Zealand and Australia in a 10-match home-and-away series to be played on Fifa-decreed dates between September 2004 and November 2005. 

The winners of that will take the automatic spot for Oceania in the 2006 World Cup. The winner of the Oceania section will playoff against the fifth-placed South American team for a place in the 2006 World Cup Finals to be held in Germany.

The "All Whites" were involved in the qualification for the World Cup Finals held in Japan/South Korea, June 2002 with games against Vanuatu, Tahiti, Cook Islands and the Solomon Islands in Auckland, New Zealand. They beat Tahiti 5-0, Cook Islands 2-0 and the Solomon Islands 5-1. As the winner of this qualification tournament they then met Australia on 20th June 2001 in Wellington for the first game in a home-and-away contest to determine the Oceania winner who would then have to play the fifth-placed South American team in November 2001 for direct entry into the World Cup Finals. 

Australia won the first-leg game in Wellington against New Zealand 2-0 and then on 24th June 2001 in Sydney, Australia won the return game 4-1 and progressed forward as the Oceania winners on a 6-1 aggregate to a two-leg playoff series against Uruguay whom they beat 1-0 in Sydney but lost 3-0 in Montevideo, Uruguay. 

The qualification games in the Oceania section of the Confederation Cup were held in Auckland, New Zealand in July 2002. After group games the semi-finals matches resulted in Australia beating Tahiti and New Zealand beating Vanuatu. In the final held on 14th July 2002 New Zealand beat Australia 1-0 and qualified for the 2003 Confederation Cup to be held in France from 18th-29th June 2003. 

They played in Group A against Japan on 18th June 2003 (lost 3-0), Colombia on 20th June 2003 (lost 3-1) and France on 22nd June 2003 (lost 5-0). The top two teams from this group (France and Colombia) progressed to the semi-finals against the top two teams from Group B with the semi-finals played on 26th June 2003 and the final on 29th June 2003. France won the final 1-0 over Cameroon with Thierry Henry scoring the 'golden goal' winner in extra time.