Asa Confirm Socceroos Match Against Venezuela

The Australian Soccer Association (ASA) today confirmed that the Socceroos will play Venezuela in an international friendly match at the Olympic stadium in Caracas, Venezuela at 7pm (Venezuela time) on Wednesday 18 February 2004.

The Australian Soccer Association (ASA) today confirmed that the Socceroos will play Venezuela in an international friendly match at the Olympic stadium in Caracas, Venezuela at 7pm (Venezuela time) on Wednesday 18 February 2004.

ASA and the Venezuelan FA exchanged written contracts for the game early in the New Year period, which will see the Socceroos in action for the first time since their 2-1 win over Jamaica in Reading, England in September of last year.

Additional negotiations are continuing with other National Football Associations to secure a meaningful international program for the Socceroos in 2004 and beyond, including an announcement for the FIFA March 30 match date shortly.  

All Socceroo matches will be played on the approved FIFA international match dates (calendar available on www.fifa.com), with 2004 promising to bring the Socceroos into action in more than 12 international matches including 2 home based international friendlies in May.

The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) has also confirmed the dates for the 2004 OFC Nations Cup, which will be held in Australia (city and venue TBC) during 28 May - 8 June. The tournament will group the top two Oceania seeds (Australia and New Zealand) with the top 4 qualifiers from the OFC Preliminary Tournament. From the ensuing round robin matches in May/June, the top two teams in the OFC Nations Cup will then play-off in October 2004 in a home-and-away play-off to determine the OFC Nations Cup winner and the resultant AFC/OFC Challenge Cup representative and 2005 FIFA Confederation Cup (OFC) representative.  

The same top two teams will then contest the OFC World Cup qualifying play-off in another home-and-away series in October 2005, with the winner to play the fifth-placed South American team for the right to play in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.