In the AFC Champions League take part teams from 14 countries: Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, I.R. Iran, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Korea Republic, China P.R. In the AFC Cup take part teams from 14 countries: India, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Yemen AR, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Turkmenistan, Myanmar, Singapore, Maldives, DPR Korea, Hong Kong and Bahrain. Both competitions have the same format: 7 groups of 4, the team coming first in each group qualifies for the Quarter-finals stage together with the defending champion. Each country sends 2 teams: the champion and the cup winner (or league runner-up if the champion and cup winner are the same). So if Australian clubs enter one of these 2 competitions, a format change will be required. AFC Champions League was restricted to 14 'mature' member associations of AFC; the teams of the so-called 'developing' members were relegated to the AFC Cup. 1. Who will Australia send? 2. Will Australia be considered a mature member or a developing one? 3. Which competition will the Australian clubs join? 4. Will the format change and how? 5. If Australian clubs enter the AFC CL, will clubs from another country "drop" into the AFC Cup and then will clubs from a 'developing' country involved in the AFC Cup drop in the AFC President Cup for the 'emerging' nations?
1. I'm guessing 2 top teams from APL unless Australia has another cup in that case it would be the champions of each cup and if they are the same the runner up for the main cup (e.g. in Iran you have IPL and "Jame Hazfi" (a cup which is played between all the teams (from all the divisions) and teams play home and away games, the looser gets eliminated and the winner moves up to the next opponent) the winners of these cup qualify for ACL) 2. if APL means Australian professional league and it is indeed a professional league then I'm sure they will join ACL 3. see #2 4. don't think so! 5. Yes this would be case... dropping teams could be from Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Syria or NKorea from ACL and replace it with Australia...
not that I know of... I think they have set criteria for the maturity... number of teams, facilities and history of success could be some of those!... try E-mailing AFC!
I believe Syria are there as a replacement for Bahrain who are being punished for their clubs forfeitting matches. My opinions on your excellent questions. 1 - We don't have a "cup" so the teams should (IMO) be the minor premier (winner after 21 rounds) and the grand final winner (or, if they're the same, the grand final loser). For this season - if we are allowed to enter, Sydney FC (as winners of the recent comp) and either Perth Glory (last champs) or the winner of the upcoming pre-season cup. 2 - We should be mature - our clubs would far very well against anyone outside the top 4 countries in Asia. Anything else would just be marking time. 3 - Top level ACL if we can. 4 - The "defending champs go to QFs" seems odd. If would seem better to have 8 groups of 4 with 2 teams from 15 countries (ie, just add Australia) + the defending champ (so 3 teams from that country as a reward) + 1 more, either winner of the AFC cup (that would certainly be an incentive to put an effort into that comp) or from the "best" other country (however defined). Adding in a round of 16 (so top 2 from groups qualify) should be a longer term goal. 5 - If 4 was done you wouldn't need to drop anyone. J
11 elements: Media, Coach Education, Sports Medicine, Futsal, Womens Football, Competitions, Marketing, Referees, Youth & Grassroot, National Associations & Clubs, Football Fans. Did that Taking the defending AFC Cup holder in the AFC CL would leave just 7 teams in the AFC CUP QFs. This would mean adding another 2 countries to the AFC Cup. I don't know...
Since A-League itself is only just starting, I don't think other FAs will cede their AFC CL positions to Australia who's only just joined. Maybe a year or two in the AFC Cup, to prove the quality of the Aussie club sides and also to give sometime for the league itself to mature, and then the AFC CL participation after that? Btw, the number of teams that each country can send to the AFC CL need to be modified as well - there's just too much gap in the level between clubs from countries. For example, Busan I'Park, a Korea club side that have been quite mediocre in the recent years (doing ok in the current season, but anyway), were grouped with teams from Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand - and from 6 matches Busan won all their games, scoring well over 20 goals and conceding none. And this was done with Busan playng mostly their second stringers.
Looking at past AFC Cup results, that's only true in theory. Both 2004 and 2005 AFC cups had only 5 groups with no automatic advancement to the QFs. http://www.rsssf.com/tablesa/ascup04.html#afc http://www.rsssf.com/tablesa/ascup05.html#afc J