<font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">Shillong Lajong's victory was against a Wellington Phoenix side that was almost all youth with big guys like Stein Huysegems, Benjamin Totori, Dani Sánchez, and Ian Hogg. Jeremy Brockie did play mind you but in 1 game and that was the 5-2 victory in which he scored 4. The 3-2 Lajong win was practically a youth fest. And keep in mind that Wellington Phoenix was the worst team in the A-League this season. Finishing last. Not an achievement.</font><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">I still dont see a UEFA style working for the Champions League. That is just the Eurosnob dream.</font></div>
@Arsenalkid<;br>"I wish the AFC would allow perhaps some lower table Japanese, Korean,
Aussie, Iranian, Qatari, Saudi sides into the AFC Cup. Make it better
quality and challenge the smaller sides. At this moment the AFC Cup is
no different then the I-League. In fact I-League is better quality then
the AFC Cup matches."<br><br>Agree with you<br>
<br><div><br></div><div>No offence to India but some top-tier clubs from Japan, Korea and one club in China (Guangzhou Evergrande) could easily dismantle any Indian team.</div><div><br></div><div>Now the lower-tier top-division clubs from those 3 divisions... could they beat an Indian side? Probably. Could they lose against them? Definitely.</div>
<br><div><br></div><div>True but we need a challenge and better quality in the AFC Cup. The AFC Cup is horrible. It makes Maldives look good. Adding a few lower tabled sides from the Japanese, Korean, and Aussie leagues would add some fire to the Cup and it could help entice some clubs to improve more.</div>
<div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">About the Asian version of Europa league, the problem of this idea is that "some lower table clubs" in Japan or Korea are not really inferior to their ACL-participating rivals.</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">You guys may be thinking about Europe where several clubs in each league spend excessive money to always dominate the league and therefore the next several clubs are significantly weaker than those super clubs. But Asian big leagues like Japan and Korea don't have such super clubs of their own, which means, it's just nip and tuck between their top 3~4 clubs from last year's table and the next 3~4 clubs.</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">Let me dig deeper. Since i don't know much about Middle East sides, let me just stick to Korean and Japanese league.</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">In K-League, 6~8 clubs are considered to be consistent contenders and these clubs are basically pretty much the same level in everything, competitiveness, financial situation and all. For quick examples, Ulsan was the ACL Champion just last year, and Seongnam was the 2010 ACL Champion, and both clubs failed to make it to the ACL this year. And FC Seoul, last year's K-League champion and on-going ACL's Group E winner, is now only 9th in the current K-League table. J.League is even more standardized. Basically you just can't predict who's gonna win J.League each year and actually 7 different clubs shared last 10 year's J.League titles. It's not rare to see the league champion, without significant change of the squad, dropping into the mid-table, and vice-versa. </font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">So, i don't really think the current AFC Cup clubs, well at least the East Zone clubs, can compete with "5th~7th" clubs from Japan and Korea and at the end of the day, the wide disparity between countries is the root of all the problems of Asian football. In this sense, i'd say that Buriram United of Thailand is doing a brilliant job. They just got through the ACL group stage, for the first time in 10 freaking years as a South East Asian club. What makes this achievement look even more outstanding is an extreme contrast with their domestic rival Muangthong United's epic fail. Muangthong won Thai Premier League last year with a ridiculous unbeaten record (25-9-0), so Thai people and media put more expectation on them than Buriram in this year's ACL, but they got gang-banged by East Asian clubs conceding 17 goals in total. The same old story. </font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">Anyway, back to the topic, as much as i love constructive intentions of the idea, i believe it's just unrealistic yet and AFC fully knows it. And even if they do actualize the idea, Japanese or Korean clubs wouldn't get motivation enough to fly half a day down to Maldives or Myanmar and play their hearts out against no name clubs, so all we may watch be their B team playing.</font></div>
I kept that in mind and I still stick to adding them in. It does not even have to be like England. Perhaps we can just have the usual countries play in the AFC Cup in the group-stage and then have the lowered table Japanese or Korean sides join in the next round.<div><br></div><div>That would at least entice the teams some more.</div>
At least we can check our ability against sm real good teams (nt against sm team which can't bring a sub gk) . And mind you guys in the year 2003 eb was champion in the asean cup after beating bec tero sasana fc. And bec tero was the acl runners up that year(02-03). Is that a good proof?
At least we can check our ability against sm real good teams (nt against sm team which can't bring a sub gk) . And mind you guys in the year 2003 eb was champion in the asean cup after beating bec tero sasana fc. And bec tero was the acl runners up that year(02-03). Is that a good proof?
a footballing nation will only get better if it plays with better teams. You cannot bridge the gap without letting both the weak and strong team play together. whatever be the disparity, continuous games with each other is the only means to improve the lot..keeping away will mean more time required to bridge the disparity..<br>
<font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">Well i'm not talking about whether it's a good or bad idea. My comment was about realistic chance of actualizing the idea. AFC have reasons not to bring the Europa League concept in Asia, and the biggest reason is that big league clubs wouldn't be interested at all. </font><span style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: small;">Though i do believe AFC will eventually bring it some day, it will take time. It hasn't been long since Asian clubs started to take even ACL seriously, so it will take time. And by then, AFC President's Cup will be no more around. </span>
<font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">Well i'm not talking about whether it's a good or bad idea. My comment was about realistic chance of actualizing the idea. AFC have reasons not to bring the Europa League concept in Asia, and the biggest reason is that big league clubs wouldn't be interested at all. </font><span style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: small;">Though i do believe AFC will eventually bring it some day, it will take time. It hasn't been long since Asian clubs started to take even ACL seriously, so it will take time. And by then, AFC President's Cup will be no more around. </span>
<br><div><br></div><div>Agree, what you say does make sense. Okay, lets wait then. Like you said some clubs in the Champions League do not even take it seriously (Japanese clubs obviously don't) and also I doubt any of those clubs would want to play against an Indian club.</div>
<font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">Well i'm not talking about whether it's a good or bad idea. My comment was about realistic chance of actualizing the idea. AFC have reasons not to bring the Europa League concept in Asia, and the biggest reason is that big league clubs wouldn't be interested at all. </font><span style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: small;">Though i do believe AFC will eventually bring it some day, it will take time. It hasn't been long since Asian clubs started to take even ACL seriously, so it will take time. And by then, AFC President's Cup will be no more around. </span>
<br><div><br></div><div>Agree, what you say does make sense. Okay, lets wait then. Like you said some clubs in the Champions League do not even take it seriously (Japanese clubs obviously don't) and also I doubt any of those clubs would want to play against an Indian club.</div>
<br><div>if there is good money involved dont you think indian clubs will play</div><div>also i remember reading somewhere that india was to host 2021 or 2022 WORLD club championships.</div>
Comments
<br><div><br></div><div>True but we need a challenge and better quality in the AFC Cup. The AFC Cup is horrible. It makes Maldives look good. Adding a few lower tabled sides from the Japanese, Korean, and Aussie leagues would add some fire to the Cup and it could help entice some clubs to improve more.</div>
<br><div><br></div><div>Agree, what you say does make sense. Okay, lets wait then. Like you said some clubs in the Champions League do not even take it seriously (Japanese clubs obviously don't) and also I doubt any of those clubs would want to play against an Indian club.</div>
<br><div>if there is good money involved dont you think indian clubs will play</div><div>also i remember reading somewhere that india was to host 2021 or 2022 WORLD club championships.</div>