Australia's chances of reaching the World Cup finals will be lifted dramatically if its move to join the Asian Football Confederation is ratified by FIFA, said Socceroos coach Frank Farina.

The AFC's executive board has voted unanimously to accept Australia as a member, rejecting speculation of concerns among some of the leading Asian nations.

Australia needs to quit the Oceania confederation and have FIFA, soccer's world governing body, accept its move before it can start competing in Asian club and international competitions, including qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup.

"It will change the game dramatically at all levels both internationally and domestically," Farina was quoted saying Thursday. "We'll have up to 16 (World Cup) qualification games that will capture the public imagination.

"It's as important as qualifying for the World Cup every four years -- it's a watershed."

Oceania Football Confederation general secretary Tai Nicholas said the whole federation might follow Australia.

"There is the possibility of all Oceania merging with Asia in some form, perhaps as a region within the Asian group," Nicholas said Thursday.

"That would have some benefits, giving us access to their technical programs and access to Asia's larger sponsors."

Nicholas said the OFC had known for some time about Australia's latest bid to join Asia.

"Our stance has been that if Australia was to receive an invitation to join Asia, as they now have, we wouldn't be stopping them, in fact we would probably be supporting them," he said.

"We will meet as a board (April 16) to discuss it. It seems likely at this stage that a majority if not all of the remaining Oceania members will support the move."

Nicholas said if Australia had FIFA's support, "we would have no power to intervene ... technically, we couldn't stop them in any case."

New Zealand soccer chief Graham Seatter, however, said there were serious consequences for other Oceania members if Australia quits the region, but he wouldn't block the move.

"To be honest we would also like to be part of Asia given the advantages," Seatter said.

"From our point of view the worse situation is to be left in Oceania as a very weak federation.

"We need to find our way out of that situation."

In Australia's absence, smaller Oceania nations might gain access to some of FIFA's biggest tournaments -- including the Confederations Cup and world club championships -- although it wouldn't necessarily change the World Cup qualifying format.

Under its circuitous qualifying format, top-ranked Australia must beat Solomon Islands in the last round of Oceania qualifying and then win an intercontinental playoff series with the fifth-place South American team -- to be determined -- to make the 2006 World Cup.

Oceania is the only one of FIFA's confederations which doesn't have a guaranteed spot in the World Cup finals. A place was offered in 2002 and withdrawn before qualifying began in 2003.

Asia has four automatic spots and a possible fifth in another intercontinental playoff.

Australia missed the 1998 World Cup on goal difference in two matches against Iran in the last qualifying stage and lost to former World Cup winner Uruguay at the last stage before the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.

The AFC said there were precedents for Australia's move. In two previous instances involving the AFC, the Asian federation gained Guam from Oceania and lost Kazakhstan to Europe.