Here we go again AFC even forces Iranian clubs to only host Saudi clubs in Oman a hot and dry land next to Saudi Arabia with Arab fans. This is just disgusting on bright day light. They don't even let Iranian clubs pick their own host countries. AFC head is total ass. You want to talk about fairness then check this out. If AFC was fair the head of AFC was not from Bahrain,Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia or China. Many officials from these countries have shown they are corrupted individuals. It is time to have a Korean, Japanese, Thai, Uzbek or Australian head of AFC.
Group of SS Tehran, Al Hilal, Al Ain and Al Rayan is the group of death in west Asia. Persepolis has finally got rid of Taremi, but we are banned from signing any new player until next winter transfer window because of his messed up situation with Turkish club Rizespor. We lost Soroush Rafie (Al khor), Mehdi Taremi (Al Gharafa), and Ramin Rezaian (Oostende in Belgian league) and got our DMF Nourollahi back. We are not as strong as last year but we are still strong enough to be among last 8 standing teams. Our group is relatively easier than last year which is a plus for us. World cup and NT preparation can hit us in May-June because of our key players not being with the team but hopefully we can manage somehow. Let see how this year competition unfolds. Persepolis is ready to take on Uzbek team Nasaf Qarshi on AFC champions league. I predict a tough match for Uzbek team. Persepolis has been cruising in PGPL for a long time now, and a 2-0 for us is a reasonable outcome.
anyone have a link to a stream for the Guangzhou vs Buriram game going on right now? currently in the US
Went along to watch Sydney and Suwong last night. Doesn't say a lot for the quality of the rest of the A league this season. At least A league games are entertaining, even if the quality isn't there.
Theres a host of countries that could host the match (not only dry Pakistan or India) but ex soviet countries like Tajikistan, Turkmenistan (CAFF nations)
Another shameful behavior by the Saudis. Everyone is criticising them. https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/7z8p1u/saudi_club_al_hilal_refuses_to_observe_a_pregame/
The choice should be made for a country which is more like home. In Iran's case, which country has same geographic appearance, culture, language ?... I believe, Iran is more close to Tajikistan in this context as the language is the same (as I think both speak almost same language). Next can be either Afghanistan OR Pakistan. Who would you choose to be near Iran if you were the boss ?
In terms of playing in a neutral venue, Iran is a minority in its region on more than one front. We are Persians in a region dominated by Arabs. We are shia in a region dominated by majority sunni states. We have a dozen or more countries lined up in a Saudi-inspired coalition against Iran. In this mix, the realistic options for our clubs to host them are few. We have settled on Oman, but the venue I would favor would be India instead. But the fact that the Saudis are allowed to manipulate things to force our matches to be played in neutral venue doesn't speak well of the AFC and how it bows to politically inspired pressures. In terms of development of the game in Asia, this really is hurtful to the AFC CL as our games would give the competition the kind of attendance and excitement that is generally lacking in most (west) AFC CL matches.
Why India, why not Pakistan ?... You will feel more at home when playing in Pakistan specially if you play near Pak-Iran border in some stadium in Baluchistan. Pakistan Football Federation can simply help you out in identifying the nearest and safest stadium for you to consider your home matches in ACL. When it comes to football, Pakistani crowd support the game in true sportsman spirit. Just try.
I would be fine with Tajikistan, but they don't seem to be on good terms with Iran right now. https://eurasianet.org/s/tajikistan-stepping-away-from-iran-to-saudi-arabia Tajikistan: Stepping Away From Iran, To Saudi Arabia https://thediplomat.com/2017/08/tajik-state-tv-documentary-accuses-iran-of-civil-war-meddling/ Tajik State TV Documentary Accuses Iran of Civil War Meddling Feeding on old rumors, the documentary is further indication of a deteriorating relationship.
AFC will always remain a joke, corrupted and incompetent confederation and ACL is the funniest competition I've ever seen. Never mind the men behind AFC, the refs are utterly incompetent and have truly always been it's so obvious that it's completely hilarious Esteghlal manages to outplay Al Ain for 95 min but comes out with a draw and 2 completely BS penalty kicks against them No ref will be enough to save these Arab teams in Azadi. Really not a competition worth attention, at least in "West Asia"
Those penalties against Esteghlal were really fishy. Fortunately, the first one was stopped and didn't score. But, overall, the Malaysian referee was either totally out of his league or there was something strange going on.
after Group Stage matchday 4 in average points per game West Asia Zone Qatar QSL W9 D5 L2 32 points，Average 2 Iran PGPL W6 D5 L5 23 points, Average 1.4375 Saudi Arabia SPL W2 D4 L2 10 potins, Average 1.25 Uzbekistan USL W3 D0 L5 9 points，Average 1.125 UAE UPL W2 D6 L8 12 points, Average 0.75 East Asia Zone China CSL W7 D7 L2 28 points, Average 1.75 South Korea K-League W7 D3 L6 24 points, Average 1.5 Thailand Thai League W1 D2 L1 5 points, Average 1.25 Japan J-League W4 D6 L6 18 points, Average 1.125 Australia A-League W1 D4 L3 7 points, Average 0.875 Hong Kong HKPL W1 D0 L3 3 points, Average 0.75
http://www.foxsportsasia.com/footba...field-weakened-teams-in-afc-champions-league/ AFC need to take action against J-League teams that are notorious for sending second or third string teams in the ACL. They are ruining the prestige of the competition.
Awesome move by Japanese team. I believe Iranian teams should send their youth teams as well to play against Saudi teams as a protest tool to unjust behavior of AFC to not letting Iranian teams have their home matches in Iran.
Japanese teams have the trend to use rotate squads in ACL away matches for years, especially in group stages, it happens to some Chinese clubs too especially to smaller clubs who doesn't have so much chances to go further in ACL. Shanghai Shenhua will use some youth players in remaining group stage matches too. but when teams enters later stage, ie Quarter-Final, they will take matches more seriouslly.
The 6 questions from the AFC Champions League group stage http://www.foxsportsasia.com/footba...6-questions-afc-champions-league-group-stage/
well I think the ACL has good prestige in east asia, especially to the fans and media. let's take a look at attendance figures of 2017 ACL and some of the asian leagues CSL clubs total attendace in ACL 2017 530,956, Averge 35,397, CSL 2017 average attdance 23,766 J-League clubs total attendace in ACL 2017 336,855, Averge 18,714, J-League 2017 average attdance 18,883 K-League clubs total attendace in ACL 2017 59,064, Averge 4,543, K-League 2017 average attdance 6,505 A-League clubs total attendace in ACL 2017 44,972, Averge 4,997, K-League 2017 average attdance 12,294 Muangthong United is the only thailand team in ACL group stage, their total attendance in ACL is 47,975, average 11,994 their average attendance in 2017 Thai League is 8,808 So basically ACL attendance is respectable in east asia countries, especially when you have more teams entering later stage. in China average ACL attendance is 149% of domestic Leagues, 99% in Japan, 69% in Korea，136% in Thailand， but only 40.6% in Australia in comparasion with mid-week tournament, the 2017 CFA cup averages 9,552, if you only count spectator numbers of the three club who plays in ACL, their total attendance in CFA cup is 248,016, Average 31,002. the Chinese club football used to have good attendance in mid-week tournaments, so we can judge from the attendance numbers, ACL is indeed considers as most important tournament in chinese profesional league system. In Japan, the J-League had announced a bonus of 80 milliom JPY （751,385 USD）for clubs entering ACL Final, that is equal to the bonus to Emperor's Cup winner. But since J-League signed huge broadcast contract in 2016 the clubs takes ACL slightly, this year both Kashiwa and Kawasaki give up after first two games, Cerezo started highly in first two rounds but they decided to use reserve squads against Buriram and lost then they've totally lost their chances of qualify in the group. the J-League prize money is devided by rankings on the league table, as to 2017 season total bonus money 9.64 billion JPY ≈ 90m USD J-League champions - 2.22 billion JPY ≈ 20.67m USD Runner-ups - 1.19 billion JPY ≈ 11.08m USD 3rd 780 million JPY ≈ 7.27m USD 4th 550 million JPY ≈ 5.121m USD 5th to 18th teams are awarded 350 million JPY each ≈ 3.26m USD In CSL 90% of the bonus money is divided equally between the clubs; and 10% is awarded on a merit basis based on final league position, as to 2017 season total bonus money 13.16 bilion CNY ≈ 210m USD CSL Champions 89.6m CNY ≈ 14.3m USD Runner-ups 88.62m CNY ≈ 14.14m USD 3rd 87.65m CNY ≈ 13.99m USD and so on, the bottom CSL team is awarded 7497m CNY ≈ 11.96m USD if you judge the situation from prize money, In Japan, higher ranking clubs awarded much more money than lower ranikng clubs so clubs takes domestic leagues more seriouslly over ACL, CSL gives clubs almost equally bonus thats one of the reason Chinese clubs tekes ACL more seriouslly. as doing well in it could brought great reputation within China and across Asia, especially in the eastern zone. Continental success also helps CSL clubs in marketing, in 2016 the ACL is has the highest average TV rating among all of the professional football leagues broadcasted in China according to CCTV5. 2016 football tournament average TV rating in CCTV5 1 World Cup Asian Qualifier - 2.1 2 Euro 2016 - 0.96 3 AFC Champions League - 0.84 4 Team China Friendly - 0.71 5 Chinese Super League - 0.67 6 Chinese FA Cup - 0.65 7 English Premier League - 0.18 8 German Bungdesliga 9 UEFA Chanpions League 10 Italy Serie A but to be honest, the ACL bonus money is indeed a joke in both Japan and China standard As to K-League, prize money for champions is only 5 billion won. about 470k USD, so one of the reasons why the Korean teams do well is because they prioritise ACL as the prize money is 8 times greater than winning the K-league, also clubs regard the title itself very highly.