Time is nigh for Middle East and North Africa to go it alone on the football front

The African Nations Cup takes place every two years. The Asian Cup comes around once every four. If there was a new confederation for the Middle East and North Africa, perhaps its showpiece tournament would be a triennial affair.

Imagine it: Egypt playing Iran in the semi-final with Algeria taking on Saudi Arabia in the other. In a region of the world that is as passionate about the global game as any other, it would be something not to be missed. Persuading Iran to join a confederation dominated by Arab countries may be tough but that aside, the benefits could be almost universal.

Go to Kuala Lumpur, the headquarters of the Asian Football Confederation, and amid the frying of the legendary char koay tow, you can often hear delegates from the east grumbling about their counterparts in the west and vice-versa. There's not much that holds the giant continent together.

There is no shared culture between Kuwait or Korea. Seoul and Shanghai have more in common with New York than Riyadh or Tehran. In terms of language, culture, history, religion and pretty much anything else, there is no reason for Asia to even have a football confederation. There is no shared Asian vision.

Should the AFC break up, history would blame Australia. The country's decision to dump Oceania for the embrace of the giant continent consigned its former home to an uncertain future. New Zealand and a smattering of South Pacific islands does not a confederation make and many believe that it is a matter of time before the Kiwis follow suit. If so, the others will have to do the same, taking the AFC to 60 plus nations and making the distances from one side of the AFC to the other truly epic.

If that happens, the confederation would surely be too unwieldy to continue. The common sense proposal would be that Asia absorbs Oceania and then the western part of the continent joins with North Africa to create a new body in world football. Thus you would have a much more manageable AFC that would start in Central and South Asia and extend down to New Zealand. Still mighty big but just about manageable for players, officials, fans and bureaucrats to handle.

It could be great for the likes of Iraq, Tunisia, Kuwait and Egypt. The North Africans would be able to forge much closer ties with their neighbours to the east. It is often overlooked as to just how massive Africa is. Again, what connects Cape Town and Cairo apart from a nine hour flight? Not much.

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West and East Asia would not miss each other much. The likes of South Korea and Iran have developed a healthy rivalry and there have been plenty of moments elsewhere but this is nothing that could not happen in a new confederation. Many of the countries in North Africa and West Asia have genuine links and shared culture and history.

Of course, that doesn't mean it would be easy. The World Cup, and how places would be allocated in the new global order, would be a significant stumbling block. For all the operational and organisational issues that would need to be sorted, for all the meetings, seminars and work groups that would have to be held, the first real question is the most emotive one. World Cup allocation is a global zero-sum game.

Perhaps it could go something like this. Asia and Oceania would have their five spots. The North African continent could take one of Africa's, giving a total of six to play with. Maybe the new Middle Eastern Confederation could have two, leaving four for the rest of Asia and Oceania or, there could be two for the west and three for the east, leaving one place to play-off over.

Maybe FIFA could help out with an extra half (as Oceania was promised at the start of the century by a certain Sepp Blatter). The details could be worked out.

In theory then, there would be benefits for all. A new confederation is created that has, at least some, shared values, culture, language and history. It would help foster greater unity (and less time spent in the air) among the remaining Asian nations. Africa would also be smaller and easier to manage and it would solve the issue of what do with Oceania.

Change is never easy and rarely welcomed but a football confederation that North Africa and the Middle East could call its own could be just the thing the region, and other regions, need.

* John Duerden is a Middle East and Asia football correspondent for Yahoo Maktoob Sports as well as the Guardian, ESPN & World Soccer. He also writes for New York Times, AP, Daily Telegraph and various other Asia media outlets. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnnyDuerden