The Problem with the Asian Champions League

News Type: Event — Tue Jan 8, 2008 2:12 AM EST

sports, soccer, football, melbourne-victory, adelaide-united, asian-champions-league, indonesian-football

In the Hyundai A-League, Australia's national football competition, last year's grand finalists are dangerously close to getting knocked out of contention for the finals. Adelaide United and the Melbourne Victory are sitting in fifth and sixth spot respectively, with five points separating them from fourth-placed Newcastle Jets.

Nothing but a top four finish will put them through to the A-League finals series. And with only two games left to go, nothing but a miracle will suffice to make that happen.

And yet, Melbourne and Adelaide will both be competing in Asia's premier international club competition, the Asian Champions' League, when it kicks off in March.

And they're going to the ACL as - supposedly - Australia's best two clubs.

The problem lies in dates. The A-League season wraps up in February, two months after the AFC (Asian Football Confederation, who organise the Champions League) announces its draw. As a result, the AFC have opted to use last season's champions for this year's Champions League.

But consider this:

Melbourne qualified for the Champions League on December 17, 2006 - close to 15 months before it would play its first game in the competition.

Strike anyone else as a bit of a problem?

Last year, Adelaide had the advantage of being able to play in the Champions League soon after the A-League wrapped up, by virtue of having finished first in the 2005-06 A-League season.

But this year, neither Adelaide nor Melbourne are playing anywhere near their best. Both teams have lost much of the good form which helped them to qualify for the Champions League in the first place.

The AFC needs to have a long, hard look at the qualification process for the Asian Champions League.

In December, it announced that Indonesia would have no representatives at the ACL this year, because the Indonesian competition doesn't finish until January - a month after the ACL draw.

Only six months ago, Indonesia was one of the four countries hosting the Asian Cup. Now it can't get a team into Asia's biggest international club competition.

If the AFC wants the Champions League to be a true representation of the best clubs in Asia, it needs to change how the qualification process works.

For more about the Melbourne Victory and the Asian Champions League, visit my blog: MVFCBlog.com.

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{"commentId":1340681,"authorDomain":"temujin"}

temujin

We have a similar problem in Europe with Scandinavian and Eastern countries, because those leagues usually run on the Summer while all the others run on Winter (from August/September to May/June). This also means teams from those leagues have an handicap for the final stages Champions League and UEFA Cup: the first phase of European cups ends in early December, which also is the end of season for those leagues, and this means that by the restart of European matches, around March, those teams are in the early season of their leagues and their form usually isn't good enough to play in those stages.

{"commentId":1340681,"threadId":"199564","contentId":"1207055","authorDomain":"temujin"}

1 vote

#1 - Tue Jan 8, 2008 7:20 AM EST

{"commentId":1350084,"authorDomain":"neiljzimmerman"}

neiljzimmerman

I definitely agree that the qualification process needs to change. The fact that Indonesia doesn't have any representatives is an absolute joke. I don't necessary see a problem with the way that the A-League qualifies for the tournament even though there is that year difference between end of seasons and ACL campaigns. A similar things happens in South America for the Copa Libertadores where for example Lanus who were the recent 2007 Clausura champions will not be playing in the Libertadores tournament until 2009. We can't accommodate all competitions but countries like Indonesia should always be represented.

{"commentId":1350084,"threadId":"199564","contentId":"1207055","authorDomain":"neiljzimmerman"}

1 vote

#2 - Thu Jan 10, 2008 5:37 PM EST

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