Asian Champions League 2011

[beastjim]

Okay so the draw has just been done for the next version of the Asian Champions League, so it's time for another thread.

West Asia

Group A
1 Al Hilal (KSA)
2 Al Gharafa (QAT)
3 Al Jazira (UAE)
4 Sepahan (IRN)

Group B
1 Esteghlal (IRN)
2 Al Nassr (KSA)
3 Pakhtakor (UZB)
4 Winner of West Play-off

Group C
1 Al Wahda (UAE)
2 Piroozi (IRN)
3 Al Ittihad (KSA)
4 Bunyodkor (UZB)

Group D
1 Al Rayyan (QAT)
2 Emirates (UAE)
3 Zob Ahan (IRN)
4 Al Shabab (KSA)

East Asia

Group E
1 Jeju United (KOR)
2 Melbourne Victory (AUS)
3 Gamba Osaka (JPN)
4 Tianjin Teda (CHN)

Group F
1 Hangzhou Greentown (CHN)
2 FC Seoul (KOR)
3 Winner of East Play-off
4 Nagoya Grampus (JPN)

Group G
1 Cerezo Osaka (JPN)
2 Shandong Luneng (CHN)
3 Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors (KOR)
4 Arema FC (INA)

Group H
1 Sydney FC (AUS)
2 Winner of Emperor’s Cup or Kashima Antlers (JPN)
3 Shanghai Shenhua (CHN)
4 Suwon Samsung Bluewings (KOR)

Melbourne Victory's group is a group of Runner Ups, so overall a pretty tough group but one they could be expected to push to progress from. Would probably be the most hotly contested group in East Asia.
Sydney FC's group looks a touch easier, With either the 4th place J-League team (Kashima) or if somebody wins the Emperors Cup who isn't already qualified, the 3rd place Chinese team and the Korean FA Cup winners who only came 7th in the league, however did make the 1/4 finals of the ACL.

Apparently Group A is the Group of Death.

Game Dates can be found here: http://images.the-afc.com/Documents/com ... hedule.pdf

[gyfox]

Sydney FC's group looks a touch easier, With either the 4th place J-League team (Kashima) or if somebody wins the Emperors Cup who isn't already qualified, the 3rd place Chinese team and the Korean FA Cup winners who only came 7th in the league, however did make the 1/4 finals of the ACL.

... because Sydney is in it? Hopefully they rebuild the squad for the ACL. It would be embarrassing seeing them beaten to a pulp by competent Asian club sides.

[Adelaide_United_Red]

God I love the ACL, it gave AdUnited the post season boost that we needed after 'winning' the spoon in s5
Next time we qualify, I'm so up for an away trip to either Japan or Korea, beats the Crows away trips to Melbourne or Perth for excitement and expense of course!

[beastjim]

... because Sydney is in it?

No, more looking at league position of the other qualifying clubs, where that actually applies unlike for our Australian teams which are most of the way through another season. Melbourne is facing 3 teams which have all just come second in their respective league, Sydney is facing a 3rd, 7th and 4th (or lower) placed bunch of teams. However don't get me wrong, Melbourne would be the team people would have wanted to avoid from the Others pot for east asia, but that works the other way for Sydney in that teams won't take them as seriously.

[gyfox]

... because Sydney is in it?

No, more looking at league position of the other qualifying clubs, where that actually applies unlike for our Australian teams which are most of the way through another season. Melbourne is facing 3 teams which have all just come second in their respective league, Sydney is facing a 3rd, 7th and 4th (or lower) placed bunch of teams. However don't get me wrong, Melbourne would be the team people would have wanted to avoid from the Others pot for east asia, but that works the other way for Sydney in that teams won't take them as seriously.

On current form Sydney will finish last in the group.

[yob]

Entrees:

1 Al Hilal (KSA) .........$12.90
2 Al Gharafa (QAT).....$12.90
3 Al Jazira (UAE).........$12.90
4 Sepahan (IRN).........$12.90

Main Course:

1 Esteghlal (IRN)........$24.90
2 Al Nassr (KSA).........$24.90
3 Pakhtakor (UZB)......$24.90

1 Al Wahda (UAE).......$24.90
2 Piroozi (IRN)............$29.00
3 Al Ittihad (KSA).......$29.00
4 Bunyodkor (UZB)......$29.00

Desserts

1 Al Rayyan (QAT)......$12.00
2 Emirates (UAE)........$12.00
3 Zob Ahan (IRN).......$12.00
4 Al Shabab (KSA)......$12.00

[RobertHeatleyStand]

Group B
4 Winner of West Play-off

Group F
3 Winner of East Play-off

When do these play-offs happen?


Doesn't look like either Victory or Sydney's ACL campaign will be affected by a grueling finals schedule this season.

Still don't like their chances though (atm) - especially Victory, yay Gamba again.

[beastjim]

12 and 19th of Feb. http://images.the-afc.com/Documents/com ... layoff.pdf

There are six teams in total in the play offs - 4 from the west and 2 from the east, so they shifted a team from the west to the east via random draw.

I wonder what Australia would have to do to even just get a third participant in via the qualifying play offs.

[Adelaide_United_Red]

There was supposed to be a review of the FFA and A-League in November this year by AFC, however AFC put it off**. If it gives time to the FFA to restore some gloss to the HAL, then we could get that third ACL spot. IIRC, the issue in the past was not allowing more than 1/3 of a country's top tier league teams[rounded down]can go into into the ACL 8/3 = 2(which is where we started at. currently 11, may drop to 10 or even surprise the fcuk out of everyone and shoot for 12 either way, as long as the league remains professionally run(although there are many that argue that it isn't even that at the mo!) Australia should get a 3rd ACL spot. it could go to the winner of an FFA Cup comp. Of Japans 4 slots, one goes to the winner of the Emperors Cup. FYI, Wellington Phoenix doesn't count in our league as far as AFC is concerned. So we are currently listed as 10+1 for 'number of teams' in all AFC correspondence:(

**FROM WIKI: The new assessment ranking was expected to be published in November 2010, with an intention to it being updated every two years.[3] However, after realizing that newly set criteria are hard to be implemented on time, AFC decided to maintain the existing allocation scheme for two more seasons and postpone the publishing of a new ranking for one year till November 2011. This ranking is expected to be applied for 2013 season onwards.

[gyfox]

12 and 19th of Feb. http://images.the-afc.com/Documents/com ... layoff.pdf

There are six teams in total in the play offs - 4 from the west and 2 from the east, so they shifted a team from the west to the east via random draw.

I wonder what Australia would have to do to even just get a third participant in via the qualifying play offs.

It was going to be 3 from both west and east but Vietnam got booted out of the competition and Qatar got a play off spot as well as their 2 direct qualification spots. Not sure why Qatar got the play off spot ahead of Uzbekistan, who scored higher on the AFC assessment of Leagues, or ahead of another country from the east for that matter. Us having only 10 Australian clubs in our top division counts against us.

[gyfox]

There was supposed to be a review of the FFA and A-League in November this year by AFC, however AFC put it off**. If it gives time to the FFA to restore some gloss to the HAL, then we could get that third ACL spot. IIRC, the issue in the past was not allowing more than 1/3 of a country's top tier league teams[rounded down]can go into into the ACL 8/3 = 2(which is where we started at. currently 11, may drop to 10 or even surprise the fcuk out of everyone and shoot for 12 either way, as long as the league remains professionally run(although there are many that argue that it isn't even that at the mo!) Australia should get a 3rd ACL spot. it could go to the winner of an FFA Cup comp. Of Japans 4 slots, one goes to the winner of the Emperors Cup. FYI, Wellington Phoenix doesn't count in our league as far as AFC is concerned. So we are currently listed as 10+1 for 'number of teams' in all AFC correspondence:(

**FROM WIKI: The new assessment ranking was expected to be published in November 2010, with an intention to it being updated every two years.[3] However, after realizing that newly set criteria are hard to be implemented on time, AFC decided to maintain the existing allocation scheme for two more seasons and postpone the publishing of a new ranking for one year till November 2011. This ranking is expected to be applied for 2013 season onwards.

We ranked 7th in the last assessment and would need to improve in Governance/Soundness, Technical Standard and Organisation to offset the lower score we will get for Attendance just to be certain we retain our 2 spots.

See page 6 of the document below.

http://www.the-afc.com/uploads/Document ... TS%201.pdf

If we somehow managed to swing a third spot then the first two in the League and the winner of the Cup qualify. That would bring about a big discussion about whether the Finals series or the FFA Cup was our Cup. Currently the Grand Final winner qualifies as our Cup representative.

[beastjim]

Our problem really probably lies in that the AFC is unlikely to take a spot off Japan, Korea or China, so it only leaves 4 spots to play around with between ourselves, Indonesia and others for East Asia, this would be much easier if we were in the weaker West Asia (Look at Qatar and Uzbekistan's rankings but what they are actually receiving). Ever since NQF and GCU entered, the number of eligbile teams has increase to 9 and 9/3 =3 so we should actually be entitled to 3 spots. Which is why I mention the play offs, if an Australian team is good enough they will get through them. And if they lose they would be in the AFC Cup, which would be an interesting competition to be involved in as well (although money probably becomes a bigger issue)

[Adelaide_United_Red]

12 and 19th of Feb. http://images.the-afc.com/Documents/com ... layoff.pdf

There are six teams in total in the play offs - 4 from the west and 2 from the east, so they shifted a team from the west to the east via random draw.

I wonder what Australia would have to do to even just get a third participant in via the qualifying play offs.

It was going to be 3 from both west and east but Vietnam got booted out of the competition and Qatar got a play off spot as well as their 2 direct qualification spots. Not sure why Qatar got the play off spot ahead of Uzbekistan, who scored higher on the AFC assessment of Leagues, or ahead of another country from the east for that matter. Us having only 10 Australian clubs in our top division counts against us.

AFC Politics is murky as all get out, but my first response to these sorts of shenanigans is Mohammad Bin Hamman (AFC head) is Qatari coincidence, I think not:)

[beastjim]

So Melbourne is off to a cracking start...... 0-0-2
Also thank god its Eithad who picks up the tab for the crap attendance as well, even Sydney FC beat your attendance.

[the crow]

Anybody thinking of going to Sydney's AFC game on Wednesday?