Not really a good excuse, playing all the games in the evening would solve that problem. Its not like the locations are several time zones apart or anything, its just poor planning.
Yessss !!! Well done, Gafurov ! Am so happy for Bunyodkor, i was afraid not a single uzbeki team would make it to the knockout stage. Let's see now if Pakhtakor can beat the odds and eliminate Bani Yas ! By the way, Nurafshon, do you know if Avramov has announced his squad for the forthcoming match against Iran ? I am currently contemplating the idea of creating a weblog dedicated to Uzbek football, either in english or in french. Would you help me in this case ?
Meanwhile, it looks as if the AFC initiative to improve Qatari football by inserting four teams in the group stage has failed so far, as all have failed to advance, and with one guaranteed to end up with the worst group stage record. It would seem to me that it would be better to remove some of those excess slots from UAE/Qatar/Uzbekistan and give them, respectively, to the champions of Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, and Syria?
Correct. Although most of the leagues you mention aren't professional enough to play ACL, the league winners of these nations are. The last few years AFC have helped pull up a few leagues in general. Look at Thailand, look at Oman looking to go fully professional and they have done their worth, so it has worked with the criteria. Next step, make the qualifying rounds bigger with the nations you mention at least playing for whatever is vacated. Never understood how a 14 or 12 team league can get 4 slots. I don't want to take anything away from what Uzbekistna has done in recent years, but still I've never found an English website (not that i've really been looking), which i thought would be a must to be as great as they seem to be in AFC circles, and the fact that they reduced their league allocation because reserve teams won the 2nd tier, this probably shows just how strong Uzbek football is in general. Outside of Pakhtakor and Bunyodkor in recent years they have struggled. Well done AFC for including Uzbek sides in AFC Cup last time which has improved the domestic league top teams, but other than that, they need to help the nations you mention
Great improvements by UAE, but China, come on, all this noise in threads outside of the Asian forums about them being the next big thing, please look here. Every year it's a disappoinment. Wel done Iran, the best league in West Asia in my opinion, and look what they have achieved. Not sure why AFC appear to downgrade their allocation and the likes of Uzbekistan prosper.
Iranian teams have been solid so far. I only expect one Iranian team in the quarter final though, as Sepahan will face Esteghlal in round of 16. And as much as I hope Perspolis can pull of a win in Jeddah against the Saudi giants Al-Ittihad, I very much doubt it. But I still have some hope. Too bad the round of 16 leg is this month. Perspolis are gonna make some great signings in the transfer window like Mahini, Ghazi and Reza Haghighi (well they are just rumors for now). If they win 23 May, then they have a good shot at winning the ACL.
My friend, you big Ittihad up too much, they have had a terrible season aswell. Could be anyone's game. As for after May, i's anyone's game. Jazira for example good in ACL, poor in UAE, could have a new coach once again. September is all change. Like a whole new tournament.
or give the spots back to Iran. 3/3 Iranian teams advanced this year. If we go back to the past 5-6 years, Iran's record has always been >75% in the group stages. But what do they do? They take away 1.5 spots from Iran. The Qatari team that ended up winning the competition last year lost home and away to Sepahan from Iran in the last 8, but Sepahan was disqualified WITH AN ABSOLUTE BS madeup rule. The Qatari team ended up beating the Koreans (how I have no idea) and winning the competition. AFC is a ********ing joke. The whole schedule of the competition makes no sense, an edition of the CL goes well into the next season to finish, there is a 3-4 month break right in the middle of the competition during the transfer season in most countries, they give midget arab countries 4 spots (UAE and Qatar) and then take away spots from Iran and Saudi Arabia, they don't give two shits about performance (they only care about facilities which they=professionalism) etc... All the countries you mentioned should get spots. UAE and Qatar don't deserve more than 1 spot.
SS and Perspolis both play like crap no matter who they sign. I'm tired of seeing these two team play like shit in the champions league. Sepahan and Tirakkkkkkkhtor are gonna rape everyone this year. I can't wait to see the arab teams try to play in negative temps and snowy conditions of Tabriz with 80K crazy fans. Azadi will seem like a cakewalk compared to that. Perspolis can beat any Asian team if they play like Sepahan. Perspolis and SS don't press and this doesn't work in the CL. They just sit back, play slow and don't press.
Frankly, the only two western nations that deserve 4 spots are Saudi Arabia and Iran. Qatar should get 2 and UAE 2+1. While I agree in the case of Qatar, UAE have 3.5 slots not 4 and they do well, I don't want to see them TOO nerfed but 3 or 2+1 slots is good for them.
2/4 this year, 0/4 last year and 0/4 the year before!!! how the hell is that well? That's a shit record. In 2010 ALL 4 UAE teams were last in their groups lol
Well Al-Ittihad has had a very good ACL campaign thus far. Then again, Perspolis has also been relatively better when compared to their league performance. Its gonna be very exciting. I hope Perspolis will put up a good fight
Guangzhou Evergrande appoints Italian coach Marcello Lippi http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/...e-club-appoints-italian-coach-marcello-lippi/ SHANGHAI (AFP) - China's Guangzhou Evergrande announced on Thursday they had signed World Cup-winning Italian coach Marcello Lippi, in the latest foreign acquisition by clubs in the nation's Super League. "In accordance with the strategic needs of the club... the following decision was made: to hire Mr. Marcello Lippi as the head coach of Guangzhou Evergrande," the club in China's southern industrial city said in a statement. "The period of hiring is two years and six months," it added, without giving further details about Lippi's salary. Lippi, 64, led Italy to World Cup glory in 2006 but he has not worked since leaving the post following the national side's ignominious performance in 2010, when they became the first defending champions to exit at the group stage. The Guangzhou Evergrande announcement follows persistent media rumours and comes despite manager Lee Jang-Soo this week taking the team into the AFC Champions League knock-out rounds. In its statement, the club said Lee would step down as the team's head coach, but it was unclear whether he would stay on in another capacity. Speaking at a press conference broadcast live on Chinese state television, Lippi said he was first contacted by the club in May last year. "I dispatched an assistant to go see the club's matches, which made me even more determined. I am very enthusiastic about coming to China," he said. Despite the 2010 World Cup debacle, the silver-haired Italian comes with excellent club credentials after winning the Champions League with Juventus, with whom he also claimed several Serie A titles.
True true. Traktor Sazi next ACL is gonna be extremely exciting! I just hope their squad or the bulk of it remains intact. I agree, their home ground is even more intimidating than Azadi. Traktor fans are indeed very passionate bordeline radical haha. We should move our TM games to there
Ittihad's trademark is to score late goals and they did it again! Congrats to them and their supporters. Al Jazira SC have been impressive so far. Aren't they owned by Sheikh Mansour (i.e. Man City's owner)? Doesn't surprise me that they're a good side to break down. They've won everything there is to win at home, so I think their next big task is to win something in the Asian level. Good luck to them as well! Lekhwiya SC are new to this, so their players are kind of excused... Kind of... I expect them to come back a lot stronger next year. I think one of the Saudi sides is going to win it this year. They may have not won anything for a long time now, but they're undoubtedly the most consistent teams in Asia in the past ten years. Eventually they're going to break through again.
Isn't that what we lambasted the AFC for giving Qatar four slots so quickly? Being too quick to change slots? Historically, UAE teams have done okay. Not enough to earn 3 or 4 slots but at least 2+1 No matter how bad the domestic league goes. Ittihad always turn up well in the ACL for some reason.
"Historically" my ass 2/4 in 2012 0/4 in 2011 0/4 in 2010 (all 4 teams finished last in their groups!!! Even Indian teams would perform better) 0/4 in 2009 2/12 in the past 4 years!!! That's pathetic. And you're sad for trying to stand up to this patheticness. If this was Europe, UAE wouldn't even have a single spot by now. In Asia though, patheticness gets rewarded. As I said, when you get punished for performance and quality and get rewarded for patheticness, don't expect Asian football to grow. These fake oil sheikhdoms build a bunch of stadiums (they don't even build it, they get some Westerner to build it for them) and that = professionalism in the eyes of AFC. What a bunch of morons lol In the end they're just destroying their fellow arab countries (kuwait, syria, Iraq etc...) but Arabs seems to be very good at that.
The first thing AFC should do before deciding on the slots is to make all the leagues specially the leagues whose teams play in ACL should start and end simoultanueslly. Because as said in the previous post it is a whole new ACL after last 16 tie.
Look at the Iranian league. In winter, teams have to go up north and play in the Azerbaijan province where temps are freezing and it's snowing all over the place. Tabriz gets MUCH colder than Vancouver, Canada (where I'm living now). By mid-spring, southern Iranian provinces bordering the Persian Gulf are scorching hot and humid and everybody has to play in these conditions. In Arab countries, games can be played in the evening when it's cooler and in the East the players can man the ******** up, wear 2-3 more layers (clearing the snow requires 4 shovels and 4 teenagers).
Tabriz http://weatherspark.com/averages/32837/Tabriz-Azarbayjan-e-Sharqi-Iran Seoul Korea (farthest north) http://weatherspark.com/averages/33287/Seoul-Seoul-Jikhalsi-South-Korea Pusan Korea (farthest south on the main land) http://weatherspark.com/averages/33275/Pusan-Kyongsang-Namdo-South-Korea Now how many teams have their home field at Tabriz and how many have them at Seoul? All games in Korea would be played in cold weather during December to February. In Iran many games would still have decent weather in the winter. Now Korea, China and Japan could take a winter break like they do in Denmark. China would be closer to Iran in that southern teams could play thru the winter, so the question is how many play below say 25'