2016 FIFA Club World Cup: Tournament News & Qualifiers [R]

Mamelodi Sundowns beat ZESCO 2:0 in the return leg and are the first African finalist.

 

Well, that got mighty close after all. Now I regret not tuning in. ZESCO too could have made things more interesting:



CAF Final: Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa) - Zamalek SC (Egypt)

Oct 14 - First Leg - South Africa
Oct 21 - Second Leg - Egypt

 

And the Asian semis start this week.

Big night in Al Ain tonight against El Jaish. I'll be there.

Very much looking forward to finally checking out the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium. And unlike the grounds in Dubai there is actual assigned seating and electronic ticketing.

 

Al Ain (UAE) - El Jaish (Qatar) 3:1

Carried by UAE national team star Omar Abdulrahman Al Ain had a very strong first half and took a 2:0 lead. Then a penalty got El Jaish back into it and for a long time it looked like the Qatari club was going to escape with a narrow loss buoyed by an away goal. Then came stoppage time and the El Jaish keeper decided he had different plans.

Glad I made the trip. Omar A's free-kick goal alone was worth the drive. Loved the stadium, the best in the UAE in my opinion. Top notch. There is no doubt in my mind that this will be the secondary venue for the next two Club World Cup tournaments. The capacity of 22K is just fine for the non-UEFA matches. Really hoping we get a similar venue in Dubai as soon as possible. The architecture allows for free air flow which is welcome when it is still 38 degrees at night. Easy to access from the Dubai-Al Ain highway as well.

Oh, and @Paul Calixte - in the middle of all the purple Al Ain fan gear in the stands I spotted a purple intruder. Someone was actually wearing a Orlando City jersey!

 

In the all-Korean East series Jeonbuk took a commanding 4:1 lead after the first leg:



Have to say I expected more from Seoul...

 

CONMEBOL has announced a number of changes to its club competitions and the Copa Libertadores will now run from February to November. This is effective starting next year. Makes a lot of sense in my book, the Libertadores winner will now be in good form and with all its contributing players for the CWC in December.

In other words, no more excuses (at least when coming up short against non-UEFA competition)

Can someone explain this in more detail?

Mexican clubs will always be guests no matter what but does this mean...

- Equal number of spots in the Libertaores?
- Nomination for the CWC in case a Mexican club wins?
- The second leg of the final can now take place outside South America? (i.e. Mexico)

Speaking of the final, there are rumors CONMEBOL wants to hold a single match at a neutral site? I'm just not convinced this can truly work outside UEFA. Would Atletico Nacional vs. Independiente del Valle draw well in Sao Paulo or Buenos Aires? Or is this a ploy to place the final in the USA to make more money? (in which case it gets a big thumbs down from me)

 

Speaking of format changes, the OFC has abandoned its single site for the competition probably due to reasons such as these. Looks like hotel expenses have a more adverse effect on budgets compared to travel cost.

I welcome this change. The crowds have been very poor, especially this year. Home and away for semis and final makes sense and we should see some 10K plus crowds again in some locations.

I actually think the current East Asia-Arabia rotation works quite well for global viewing. The Arab tournaments suit Europe, Africa and the Americas while the Japanese ones (soon Chinese?) work for the Asia-Pacific region.

 

Looks like it's mainly about the order of the final series. The CWC nomination would still go to the next best South American club. Also, Mexico already receives the same number of spots as other associations not named Brazil or Argentina. Since the Libertadores is now "linked" with the Sudamericana for some (eliminated) teams, how will Mexican participation be handled there? I believe until now CONCACAF objected to Mexico participating in both competitions? (Of course Pachuca did manage to win the Sudamericana before that door closed)

So now three confederations have a Feb-Nov schedule which nicely aligns with the CWC. Now watch CONCACAF do the same only for FIFA to change to CWC to a (biennial) summer window as rumored.

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Not directly related but we touched on it before, the road-map for Indian football is now expected to be finalized by January 2017. The AFC will not get involved in the ISL/I-League spat:

With the ISL being a "closed league" as the official Indian top flight going forward FIFA will have to rubber-stamp it as they did with MLS and the A-League:

 

Impressive...

Zamalek will struggle to come back from this.

 

Why? Al Ain can be back at the 2017 CWC simply by winning the UAE league as hosts. In any case, I very much look forward to witnessing my second consecutive AFC CL final. This time the deciding leg.





The CAF final second leg will happen on Sunday 23/10.

 

The competition regulations prevent two teams from the same association. If a UAE club wins the ACL in 2017 the runner-up would take the host spot. This happened twice previously when J. League clubs won the ACL while Japan hosted that year. Sepahan and Adelaide benefited at the time. Personally I don't like this rule but there you go.