Australia want World Cup
berth for Oceania

Australia is planning to lobby FIFA president Sepp Blatter to award Oceania an automatic place in the World Cup finals when he visits the country next month.

Australia has long been campaigning for direct entry to the finals for Oceania's regional winner and is hopeful Blatter will help grant their wish when FIFA votes on the issue in December.

Blatter said last month he would back calls to grant Oceania the extra berth in the 2006 finals in Germany that became available when the world body decided not to give automatic entry to the defending champions.

"(Blatter) is looking forward to swinging down (to Australia) and making sure the message gets through that FIFA is right behind us," Soccer Australia's acting chief executive Greg Bates told reporters on Wednesday.

But Oceania face competition from other confederations, including Asia, who are seeking the extra berth.

Australia, who have won the Oceania qualifiers four times out of the last five, have then had to play-off against teams from other confederations and lost.

Bates confirmed Australia would be bidding to stage the 2003 Confederations Cup and also arranged a series of friendlies later this year against the United States, South Africa and South Korea.