Monday, November 26, 2012

Chinese media report S-league will get ACL slot

Chinese media have reported Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have decided on the AFC Champions League  (ACL) slots for the 2013 and 2014 season.

Other than Indonesia Super Liga (Or whatever they call it now) who will miss out, everything is about the same as the earlier reports from the Chinese media with S-league above V-league in the ranking though.

So from what I gather, the ACL qualifiers will see S-league, V-league, Thai Premier League and AFC Cup champions/runner-up in the first round with Chinese Super League and A-league waiting in the next and final round for the winners.

There may also be a big revamp to the upcoming ACL according to more reports with an AFC Conference this week set to discuss these issues.
  1. Increase on Asian Player spots - Clubs in the ACL may register 3 Non-Asian Foreigners and 3 Asian Foreigners (3+3)
  2. Not allowing ACLQ losers to play in the AFC Cup
  3. A new age-group competition - U18 AFC Champions League
While delighted Tampines Rovers can play in the ACL if the Chinese media are right, I am not sure about the fact AFC may cancel the rights of the ACLQ losers to play in the AFC Cup especially as Asian club competition still does not command the full attention of the media in this region and still building itself so restricting it to fewer teams will not help

They need more teams and competition, not less.

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