By Mike Tuckerman
March 11th 2010 @ 4:30am
Stubborn AFC are hindering the Champions League
Melbourne Victory's coach Ernie Merrick barks out orders to his players. AAP Image/Joe Castro
Melbourne Victory coach Ernie Merrick had every right to criticise Football Federation Australia and the Asian Football Confederation over the AFC Champions League fixture list.
For a tournament that is supposed to represent the cream of Asian football, neither organisation has acted in the best interests of the game when it comes to the scheduling of the Champions League.
“I don’t think there’s any point in dealing with the FFA and AFC, they just don’t move on anything,” Merrick told various media outlets ahead of Victory’s most recent Champions League clash with Korean side Seongnam Ilwha.
Merrick’s choice of words was telling – his suggestion that the two governing bodies are slow to react echoes the fact that both organisations usually deal with problems by ignoring them and hoping that over time they simply go away.
The problematic scheduling affects more than just A-League clubs, with the three big East Asian leagues having either just kicked off – or in the case of the Chinese Super League, not kicked off at all – not that it’s done their sides too much harm so far.
Every season, participating J. League clubs face the dilemma of having to concentrate on their Champions League kick-off while their new domestic campaign clicks into gear just days later.
The idea that all Japanese clubs are out for continental glory is laughable – a source at one Japanese side once told me that they would prefer to miss out on Champions League qualification because the travel required would place a serious strain on their financial resources.
Then there are the matches themselves, which usually descend into farcical hack-fests the minute one side attempts to play some decent football.
His annual rant on the value of the Champions League was as predictable as it was entertaining, but Rising Sun News editor Ken Matsushima was not wrong when he proposed that J. League sides risk life and limb any time they play on the continent.
When Seongman defender Sasa Ognenovski broke Kawasaki skipper Kengo Nakamura’s jaw in a sickening collision in their ACL opener, he rubbed out Frontale’s best player for two months and robbed fans across Asia of the chance to see a genuine star in action.
Ognenovski’s brutal challenge was more clumsy than malicious, but would he have even been half a step behind Nakamura if Seongnam had played more than just one K-League game by the time the two teams met?
Perhaps the answer is to try and move back the start of the tournament by a few weeks, when the A-League and some of the West Asian leagues have wound down and the East Asian teams have had a chance to settle in to their domestic campaigns.
That would at least help to avoid the kind of scenes we saw in Changchun and Kawasaki this week, where subzero conditions and inches of snow either bewildered opponents or made attractive passing football nigh-on impossible.
I want the Champions League to succeed – I think it’s a tournament that has the potential the bridge cultural divides, but at the moment it’s proving more of a hindrance than a help.
And it doesn’t help that many Australians feel like we shouldn’t speak up, as though our entry into the AFC was merely an act of charity and not one that is mutually beneficial to both parties.
Ernie Merrick had every right to criticise the Champions League fixture list, and the deafening silence that ensued says much about the way that Asian football is run.
Nothing will change until the AFC starts to listen to participating clubs, by which time many potential fans may have already lost interest.
Join The Roar's A-League tipping competition and own bragging rights at the office! Join now.
(34)
james said | March 11th 2010 @ 6:08am | Report comment
I agree, another way this could be furthered is by making the major leagues across Asia (who partake in the acl) start at roughly the same time. The AFC would give a window of 3 months to for domestic competitions to start i.e. between august-october the domestic competitions must commence. Then they could start the acl in January which would be roughly mid season for most competitions, so the quality of play is decent.
Also we would be on the similar schedule to europe which is what FIFA prefer
AM said | March 11th 2010 @ 7:06am | Report comment
Careful what you say, the AFC are very sensitive and no doubt Merrick will be sent to the naughty corner for his comments! But while the AFC are stubborn mules, Merrick’s just got to toughen up. The biggest clubs in the world have to deal with packed schedules, that’s just life. But what could be done is allow the competing A-League clubs to have an extended squad. That’s the problem. These tired Aussie teams compete against giant Asian clubs with the luxury of a squad double the size, and therefore a greater ability to rotate tired players.
Lu said | March 11th 2010 @ 7:32am | Report comment
“both organisations usually deal with problems by ignoring them and hoping that over time they simply go away.”
Isn’t that the FIFA edict?
Or is it more..
“to please some of the people some of the time, you have to annoy most of the people most of the time..”
Tom said | March 11th 2010 @ 8:39am | Report comment
I agree with a lot of the article, but I think Merrick was a bit out of line to say the FFA ‘don’t move at all’ to accommodate clubs for the ACL.
After all, they were prepared to schedule Victory’s first semi-final game on the Thursday, which would have cost them a lot of ticketing revenue.
Mike Tuckerman said | March 11th 2010 @ 8:44am | Report comment
Good point, Tom.
I took Merrick’s statement as more of a comment on the general lack of dialogue between the FFA and the AFC.
AndyRoo said | March 11th 2010 @ 8:52am | Report comment
I think the FFA have probably learnt it’s a waste of time. With so many leagues and cultures (not to mention two hemispheres) involved it’s probably the only way to run the comp. Put out the schedule and it’s up to the particpating leagues to make it work.
Australian Football said | March 11th 2010 @ 8:50am | Report comment
Mike,
agree with your article and I put the blame at the foot of the FFA’s Archie Fraser for poor scheduling of the A-League’s season. He has had spent too much time at the AFL, which has clouded his decision making of the importance of the ACL. Please can someone explain to him that you can’t play a final and then back up and play an ACL match two days later like Melb Victory had to do. As a passionate Australian Football Supporter—anyone of us could see that the ACL match should have been played on Thursday or at the very least on the Wednesday.
——
AF
Dogz R Barkn said | March 11th 2010 @ 9:09am | Report comment
But Archie Fraser doesn’t do up the schedule for the ACL, the AFC does, so he can’t move the game back.
AndyRoo said | March 11th 2010 @ 9:14am | Report comment
Dogz is right, Archie can only change the A league schedule and if he changes it too much it’s a bit harsh on Sydney since they finished first.
Australian Football said | March 11th 2010 @ 9:26am | Report comment
Maybe, but did he even try to alternate the away Adelaide fixture with the home Melbourne fixture? My bet is he didn’t even try—or he could have rearranged the SFC home final to be played earlier perhaps.
AndyRoo said | March 11th 2010 @ 9:36am | Report comment
The SFC was unavailable for Friday and Saturday apparently so they would have had to find a new venue. SFC who finished first should be allowed to play at their regular home ground so Sunday it was.
Hopefully the lessons are learnt for next years A league schedule but Archie beeing the huge football fan that he is was probably banking on MV not making the top 6. Two good seasons ina row is a first for them.
MartyB said | March 11th 2010 @ 9:18am | Report comment
The FFA has been more accomodating of MV this season than of any other club you care to mention. They locked in the home semi-final for them prior to the premiership beind decided and then, by Merrick’s own admission, the FFA appealled to the AFC to reschedule their ACL matches for them.
Merrick’s been upping the mind games during the finals series and everyone is dancing to his tune. He is doing a great job of deflecting attention from his players in the lead up to important matches, complaining about a phantom broken leg, complaining about referees picking up his players for stray elbows, complaining about scheduling when you’ve got a squad of 30 players (for the ACL) and you play 3 matches in 2 weeks…
He’s going to keep doing it too, because everyone’s buying what he’s selling!
Dogz R Barkn said | March 11th 2010 @ 9:20am | Report comment
Marty
everything you’re saying is true – but one has to admit that a two day break between two big games is unacceptable – not even the Europeans have to put up with that short a break.
AndyRoo said | March 11th 2010 @ 9:29am | Report comment
Ok I am going to stop posting Dogz is right over and over again and just give him thumbs up.
zizou said | March 11th 2010 @ 12:42pm | Report comment
“The FFA has been more accomodating of MV this season than of any other club you care to mention. They locked in the home semi-final for them prior to the premiership beind decided and then, by Merrick’s own admission, the FFA appealled to the AFC to reschedule their ACL matches for them.”
That statement is absolute crap. Going into the last round MV were always going to finish in the top two so they would have some say in where and when the first game was played. They clearly stated that they would play the first game at home no matter what the outcome of the premiership. This was combined with the fact that whoever their opponent was to be would most likely want the second leg at home (fat lot of good it did them anyway
)
As for the broken leg statement, they always said it was a ’suspected’ broken leg. Everyone took that is was broken as a given. I’m pretty sure after the true extent of the injury was discovered they let everyone know but people like yourself obviously chose to ignore this statement.
dasilva said | March 11th 2010 @ 10:42am | Report comment
I’m not too sure the fixture is a really great excuse.
Last couple of ACL. People were complaining about lack of match practice as there were in the off seasons and no games. However the flip side of that was the opposition side had 3 matches in a week and more fatigue then our team. However vidmar said that he would rather be in the position of the opponents to have more games (but fatigue) then less games (fit but lacking match practice).
this year the ACL has moved earlier. When melbourne play Beijing, i believe Beijing were in their preseasons. So therefore the reverse had happen.
You can’t complain about having not enough match practice in the ACL and then start complaining about congested fixture when the match practice issue is fixed.
It’s either one or the other.
The only issue i see was that two day break was a bit to little. Even in Europe there’s generally no less then 3 day break in between games.
however merrick was complaining about the schedule even for the first leg.
Ben of Phnom Penh said | March 11th 2010 @ 11:23am | Report comment
The scheduling for the Melbourne game is tough indeed though it needed to be balanced against stadium availability, existing commercial commitments, television commitments etc. I’d like to see both sides of the argument before I commented as to whether Melbourne had a raw deal or were given the best deal within the parameters available.
That said the scheduling of the ACL is another matter entirely. I think that Mike has a point in relation to the East Asian club competitions. The competition could start a few weeks later to avoid the worst of the weather and the start of the East Asian leagues however this would push the group stage of the competition towards May which is getting very hot in the Gulf.
zack said | March 11th 2010 @ 11:45am | Report comment
If MV thinks its hard then just give up your ACL spot to some other clubs. Any of the other 8 clubs would be more than happy to participate.
zizou said | March 11th 2010 @ 12:34pm | Report comment
Aren’t all these fixture problems being caused by the fact that the ACL has had to be moved forward to accommodate the World Cup. Therefore these issues should only really occur every four years and by then they may have sorted it out.
Ben of Phnom Penh said | March 11th 2010 @ 1:06pm | Report comment
This is true, Zizou. The first round after the group stages home and away pushes right up against the World Cup as it is.
Joe FC said | March 11th 2010 @ 12:47pm | Report comment
As Ben said there are two sides to every story. The fixture list for the HAL is prepared in May and for the ACL the following Nov so the FFA is limited in what it can do to avoid congestion. This season has also had the added complication of ACQ. We joined Asia because we wanted competition & I for one thoroughly enjoy watching at both club and national level. Ernie needs to remember that you’re not going to win every argument.
Victer said | March 11th 2010 @ 1:09pm | Report comment
On a side note does anyone think the acl should be a plain 2 legged knockout system? the group stages draw average crowds across the continent and would surely be quite expensive to participate in for smaller clubs.
Pull out said | March 11th 2010 @ 1:59pm | Report comment
There are a few teething issues with ACL involvement, but it will sort itself out in time. The FFA should have had the final against Sydney on Friday night.
From now on they will have no excuses. Plenty of time to recover, so we are expecting 4 straight wins. Asia is very weak in standards. It is not UEFA CL by a mile.
To be honest, I wonder how MV gets such good results in the A-League. They look pretty average in Asia everytime I have seen them. Ad U came last and they seem to have no problems in Asia. Maybe MV gives too much respect. They should be thrashing the Asians and beating them like rented mules.
Midfielder said | March 11th 2010 @ 2:31pm | Report comment
Mike good article… I think FFA want as little head to head match scheduling with the AFL & NRL as possible … this is what is driving much of their decision making… TBH I think they are right the media we get at the start up of the NRL & AFl seasons and the media at the business ends of these competition is very limited…
I actually don’t think there is an easy answer… while it may be easy to say … YA bring it on …. we show em … in practise it is far more difficult… whether we like it or not the marketing arms of the NRL & AFL and their media broadcasters are set on increasing TV rating … to this end it is pure business ….
Football is a long way from being on the same park … so to keep away from start up and season end as much as possible is what is needed and thus cram as much as possible into into the Late September early March … can only be and will be this way for a years years… We are still developing … creating expecations or false dawns will only hurt us … do what we can do and lets grow and I for one can point to a number of errors … but I can also see the logic at this stage of football development to stay away as much as possible direct head to head match scheduling with the NRL & AFL…
Wayno said | March 11th 2010 @ 3:36pm | Report comment
Question: How do you tell if Ernie Merrick is complaining about how hard done by MV are?
Answer: His lips are moving.
Davstar said | March 11th 2010 @ 3:43pm | Report comment
Victory played poor in europe teams have to play 3 games in tens day some times under super extreme conditions. If you have a sqad of professional football players you should ba able to deal with that. I dont Merrick has a right to complain when just a few days ago hewas aying how much depth is in his squad. If you havnt notice Merrick bearly ever play fresh young players he even got Mardje to avoid using youth league players (who btw doesnt suit mv style a decent coach would have know that). Thats why he’s been getting ripped side ways in the ACL, he has a 22 man squad plus youth league players he should do better.
Instead of playing the same starting 11 every week he should mix it up change at least 1-2 players a match give a young guy ago.
Melbourne Victory havnt had one player go overseas and be successful and they are the biggest club in the A-league.
David V. said | March 11th 2010 @ 4:07pm | Report comment
These established leagues have, like the rest of the world, had heavier schedules for years.
Way back in 1980, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest had 3 games left when most teams ended their league campaign (back then teams didn’t all end simultaneously. And Arsenal had the FA Cup and Cup-Winners’ Cup finals to play too, and would lose both. Forest had the European Cup Final, which they won.
Back in 1963, Everton had 9 games in April due to one of the severest winters in English history. And we didn’t lose a single one of those games, and duly won the League.
The previous season was one of those with mass postponements due to severe weather, affecting the lower leagues and Scotland far more. Now that season (78/79) was one of the most openly contested leagues in Scottish history, and both Rangers and Celtic had a mass of catch-up games. Celtic duly won the league, beating a 10-man Rangers to do so in a decisive game, overhauling Dundee United who had been top when their fixtures were completed.
If you want to be taken seriously as professionals, you have to deal with these things as they come.
jimbo said | March 11th 2010 @ 9:13pm | Report comment
To be fair to the AFC, there are 50 countries in this confederation, so its going to be impossible to please every country’s league competition and get it right.
The FFA had to be more flexible – not by a couple of days but by a week or so, so as not to be unfair to the clubs in the ACL and the finals – but at the start of the year the FFA wouldn’t know which clubs would be in the business end of the finals would they?
So its like this, not easy to re-arrange and you have to accept it and do your best.
Rob said | March 12th 2010 @ 12:24pm | Report comment
Exactly what Ben Buckley just said: http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/news/976207/FFA:-Stop-complaining-Victory
Story just up on the World Game website.
Buckley also says that they did move the first leg of the semi to help Victory out, but other games were difficult to shift around.
jimbo said | March 12th 2010 @ 12:35pm | Report comment
He obviously reads TheRoar and takes note of what we say.
David V. said | March 11th 2010 @ 9:18pm | Report comment
The FFA has never shown any real flexibility. Look when half the squads were decimated to international call-ups.
Mike Tuckerman said | March 12th 2010 @ 2:29pm | Report comment
“Teams from other countries seem to be able to juggle their timetables.”
But is it good for the game?
If broken jaws and 9-0 victories are par for the course, it’s no wonder clubs are having a hard time selling the Champions League to fans.
David V. said | March 12th 2010 @ 8:00pm | Report comment
That’s less of a case with the new format. The Vietnamese, Thai and Indonesian sides used to cop big scores, Gamba and Kashima racked up huge ones including Gamba’s 15-0 win over Da Nang.
Axel V said | March 12th 2010 @ 11:47pm | Report comment
The AFC are shambles when it comes to planning schedules, however the FFA need to be smarter and work with the AFC rather than doing their own thing, this includes cancelling and rescheduling of matches ahead of time.
Perhaps Melbourne having the Swan Street Stadium will give them more flexibility?, or are they forced to play at the terrible pre-season AFL Docklands stadium for ACL?