By Davidde Corran
October 10th 2009 @ 5:14am
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Asian Player of the Year award is a farce
Malaysian goalkeeper Mohd.Heumi Eliza, right, catches the ball, as Indian soccer Captain Baichung Bhutia, center, looks on during a friendly match before the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) challenge cup, in Hyderabad, India. AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A
Football fans in Australia shouldn’t be alarmed by the absence of Australians from the first round of nominations for the AFC player of the year award.
It’s not a case of Australian football being shunned by its confederation. Nor is it due to some mysterious lack of top-class Australian football players.
Instead, it’s because the AFC player of the year award is flawed from the ground up.
The first key factor is the ranking system. The Asian Football Confederation bases its choices on a weighted ranking system that takes into account Most Valuable Player nominations from Asian Football Confederation and FIFA competitions.
While these include Asian World Cup qualifying, when it comes to club football, only regional competitions in Asia are considered. That is the Asian Champions League and the AFC Cup.
So you might be playing in the English Premier League like Tim Cahill and the UEFA Champions League like Park Ji-Sung but your chances of being considered are greatly hindered. This makes the award heavily weighted towards players who play their club football in Asia.
There’s also something inherently flawed about a Player of the Year award that permits someone who has attacked an opponent, and been banned for eight games because of it, in the last twelve months to be nominated.
For that matter the nomination system also strikes me as being rather awkward.
Instead of one final nomination list being produced ahead of the award ceremony later this year, the AFC releases an initial list and then updates it after each match day.
This means even if you do play your club football in Asia you’re not on even footing with players whose teams make it to the latter stages of a relevant tournament.
To be fair you can understand the hesitancy of those at AFC house in Kuala Lumpur in having their award going to European based players every year.
It’s hard to imagine Tim Cahill, Takeyuki Morimoto or Makoto Hasebe flying to Asia in the middle of their club seasons to receive their award. But while not wanting to be embarrassed by the AFC player of the year not turning up year in year out is reasonable it still leaves the award lacking in creditability.
The AFC player of the year is also invited to train with English Premier League side Chelsea and it would be somewhat farcical (though hilarious) to see Park Ji-Sung spending a week training in the colours of a domestic opponent.
None of that should matter though because without a nomination system that considers everyone equally, the AFC Player of the Year award loses its prestige.
The Asian Football landscape has changed. Just as the amount of foreigners playing in Asia has increased, so has the amount of Asians playing in Europe. The numerous players who are plying their trade in Europe should be given the chance to be recognised.
The Asian Football Confederations refusal to bring their Player of the Year award into line means it remains a farce.
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(9)
Freud of Football said | October 10th 2009 @ 5:25am | Report comment
Sorry Davidde but Jesse Fink just wrote about the exact same thing on TWG, it’s only interesting the first time really.
Alex said | October 10th 2009 @ 7:53am | Report comment
Roooowww bitch. Haven’t the claws come out?
AndyRoo said | October 10th 2009 @ 10:36am | Report comment
I read the link you posted about the CSL club withdrawing because their player was suspended. What a farce.
Do we really need promotion and relegation to get more than 2 spots when China have 4?
Pippinu said | October 10th 2009 @ 2:07pm | Report comment
On the face of it, it seems reasonable that the Asian player of the year is a player who earns the right via AFC sanctioned events.
My beef is that players of very dubious distinction have ended up winning the award when there are so many stand out players within Asia itself.
mahony said | October 12th 2009 @ 2:11pm | Report comment
I agree Pip – some dubious ones indeed. I too can understand the AFC preferencing its competitions. “The future may well be Asia” (to butcher a trademark) – but it is not the future yet, and Asian football needs to focus on reaching its potential. It should be the 2nd biggest confederation in ‘football economy’ terms within 15 years by passing South America (and arguably Africa if it gets its act together). Time will tell, and in the interim the AFC will continue to focus on its own patch at every step and with good reason IMO.
Davidde Corran said | October 10th 2009 @ 11:13pm | Report comment
Pippinu I think there’s a problem with it because its such a mixed bag of an award. While technically anyone can win it, because of the way it is set up it favours one group and not others.
If its going to be an award for Asian players who play their football in the region then it should only include such players.
If its going to include all Asian players wherever they play club football then it should be weighted evenly between them.
AndyRoo, you’re right Chinese football is a debacle. There’s genuine concern that there is governmental interference, recent corruption scandals, player and fan violence and of course the aforementioned debacle with Wuhan last season. It’s not just promotion and relegation that is holding us back its the size of the league.
When the ACL was restructured last year the A-League was still an 8 team competition. The rules state that no more then a third of a league’s teams can be eligible. China get to keep their spots at this stage because there hasn’t been a viable alternative.
Freud, writers are at the mercy of their editors. They have the final say on how a piece is written, its heading and as in this case when it is run.
Ben of Phnom Penh said | October 11th 2009 @ 11:37am | Report comment
It’s not the Asian Player of the Year though is it? I thought it was AFC Player of the year. Josh Kennedy in with a chance next year along with Jason Culina.
Pippinu said | October 11th 2009 @ 3:21pm | Report comment
Davidde
that’s a fair enough point about the lack of clarity in terms of the criteria.
I know another bugbear has been that the player must be available on the night to accept the award in person, or presumably, must forfeit all right to receive it.
Given that there is a clear weighting to players performing within the region, it probably should become an award exclusively for such players (perhaps with another award for Asian players who earn a crust outside of the region).
Davidde Corran said | October 12th 2009 @ 7:46am | Report comment
Pippinu,
Yes you’re absolutely right. The AFC have changed the rules on the award so that a player must be there to accept it. The problem with that being its in the middle of the European season (and for that matter many other seasons). This is because the award is linked with the East Asia football cycle. A systematic problem in Asia that’s linked with the previous dominance of Japanese money from advertising in the game (think of all the advertising boards at ACL games).
Personally I’m not too fussed how they set the award up as long as they change it. Something needs to give otherwise it’ll just fall into oblivion.