2013 FIFA Club World Cup: Tournament News & Qualifiers [R]

Esperance 1:1 Orlando Pirates

Orlando progress to the final due to away goals rule, thus eliminating last year's champion. South Africa, after years in tournament wilderness, have a team at the tournament and even manage to make the final!

GOALS:
Iheb Msakni (55’) - Rooi Mahamutsa (52’)

 

FC Seoul club owners announced that if the club beat Guangzhou Evergrande in ACL Final, they will get a bonus money of 3,500 million won, that is about 3.15 million USD.
Guangzhou Evergrande announced that tickets for second leg of ACL final had been sold out, the ticket income for the match reaches 55 million RMB, that is about 9.042 million USD.
Accoring to Chinese media about 15,000 Guangzhou fans will be at Seoul World Cup stadium for the first leg of ACL Final, with at least 6,600 travelling from China and more that 8,000 living in Korea.

 

Quite overdue really. I know that Orlando have won the CAF Champions League before, but with the money behind the PSL they really should be more successful. That said, the quality of South African football has declined drastically in relation to the rest of Africa since the 90s...

 

Just got out of the stadium in Seoul. Very good crowd, stadium was about 75-80% full with a nice showing by the Chinese fans. 2-2, a good game, not a good result for FC Seoul. Canton (I don't want to lookup their name, and they had a big "We are Canton" banner) looked very good with their possession and quick passing game. Kind of ironic their goals came from knocking in crosses. Their defense looked pretty weak when Seoul was quick with their counters, so I expect that will be what they try to take advantage of in the second leg.

 

Canton is the Cantonese pronuncation of Guangdong, the province Guangzhou located in

 

Surely, that must be the case. And that means that the advantage from the first leg is clearly with the Chinese club.

 

Wikipedia says away goals are used in regulation but not if there is overtime after the second leg.

 

TV Audience in China annunced by CSM at a average of 2.82%, hignest 3.92%, that means 85 million People watched the match in China

 

I am impressed with Evergrande, the real estate company(not the team). They could easily invest money in an English team, but instead, they decided to start with a second division side in China. And most super clubs outside of Europe tended to spend big money on famous but older players, but Evergrande bought foreign players who were unknown in Chuna, but much younger.

 

Nah, if it was still in Abu Dhabi would definitely consider it, but Magreb's a little too far unfortunately....

 

I was thinking of Shanghai when I mentioned clubs signing older but more famous players. Shanghai Shenhua bought in Drogba and Anelka last season while Guangzhou signed players who was relatively unknown outside of Latin America.

 

What Asian football needs to witness a dramatic improvement in profile and quality is the kind of injection of money into the game which will follow only when the world's most populous country, China, is able to produce a successful team (or several of them preferably) that can attract the backing of the large fan base in China, coupled with the financial resources of companies that have money to pour into the game. We may have something like that emerging with Guangzhou Evergrande. If the Chinese club prove successful in taking the AFC CL title, and looking ahead to the World Club Championships, properly prepare and invest for that competition and do well there too, then you might see a revolution in Asian football.

A billion Chinese viewers, backed by the financial resources available to a host of Chinese companies, chasing competitions that suddenly are interesting because China is involved and is doing well, will see a lot of money injected into the AFC CL as well. At the same time, with the profile and interest in the AFC CL rising in the world's most populous nation, you will see the same happen in Japan and South Korea as well. Which means those 2 countries, both of whom can have a lot more viewers and considerably more sums of money invested into football, will take the AFC CL more seriously as well and that will then ripple through all of the continent and bring even money from the rich Persian Gulf states and the like as well. Down the road, all that will translate to a revolution in Asian football, where it will no longer be the case where the first choice of the very best players in the world would necessarily be European clubs. If the potential of the Asian market is uncapped, and the resources of the various economies in the region are consequently focused more on football, Asian clubs will be able, down the road, to easily out bid most of the clubs in Europe.

 

am going to the U-17s final though....

 

am going to the U-17s final though....