ACL slots maintained

AFC – KUALA LUMPUR,  The joint meeting of the AFC Ad-hoc Committee for Professional Football, under the chairmanship of AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam, has recommended that the current slots for Member Associations in the AFC Champions League be maintained for another year to help the Member Associations meet the criteria.

The only change in the slots for the 2011 edition is Vietnam’s disqualification for non-submission of documents and the allocation of their ACL play-off spot to Qatar.

The committee, which included members of the AFC Ad-hoc Committee for Member Associations, AFC Ad-hoc Committee for Professional Leagues and AFC Ad-hoc Committee for Professional Clubs, observed that progress had been made by the Member Associations in meeting the criteria but felt that there were still many areas that needed improvement.

The members asked AFC’s Special Mission Team (SMT) to conduct inspections and workshops again next year.

On the basis of the SMT reports, a decision will be made in November 2011 to implement the new slots from the 2013 edition of the ACL. The committee decided that 2012 would have the same number of slots as 2011.

At the outset, Bin Hammam asked the presidents of the national associations and clubs in the continent to join hands in order to bring the standard of football at par with the best of the world.

The AFC chief said: “Football in Asia has developed to a certain extent but there is still a long way to go to fill the gap between Asia and other top-class footballing nations.

“We established standing committees for professional football, leagues and clubs because the presidents of the associations and clubs were not part of the decision-making process of the confederation in the past which created a lot of misunderstanding between the confederation and the national associations.

“The time has come now to join our efforts to contribute in the development of national and continental football,” he said.

“This is the right platform where we can discuss the common goal and focus on the interest of the continent. It is time to review the progress we have made and the future plans.”

UAE Football Association President Mohammed Khalfan Al Romaithi congratulated Bin Hammam for standing unopposed for a third four-year term as AFC President.

“I would like to congratulate the AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam for his re-election. It was result of his hard work and confidence we all have in him,” Al Rumaithi said.

Bin Hammam said he was eager to finish the task the members had entrusted him with.

“I would like to look forward to another four years hoping this would fulfil the expectations of our fans, players, coaches, and referees,” Bin Hammam said.

Meanwhile, the committee confirmed that only Australian clubs would be allowed to participate in the AFC Champions League and the highest-placed eligible club would take the place of Wellington Phoenix, who are a New Zealand club playing in the A-League, in case they qualify for the premier continental club competition.

The committee also accepted the proposal of Korea Republic side Gwangju Sangmu’s participation in the Korea League as an exceptional case after firm assurances from the Korea Football Association.

Gwangju Sangmu are currently playing in the Korea League but do not fulfill the AFC Champions Leauge criteria as they are not a commercial entity and their players are not professionally contracted.

It was decided that next highest placed K-League club would take the place of Gwangju Sangmu in case they qualify for the AFC Champions League.

The Korea Football Association also submitted a plan for transferring Gwangju Sangmu to second division within the next three years.

China’s ongoing fight against match-fixing and corruption in football helped them keep their slots in the next AFC Champions League.

AFC received the first progress report from the China Football Association on August 12, 2010, and the second on October 9, 2010, which showed the association and the Chinese government’s determination to root out corruption and match-fixing from the game. The members agreed that China’s berths in the AFC Champions League should remain intact.

All decisions of the standings committees need to be ratified by the AFC Executive Committee, which meets on Wednesday.