SYDNEY, March 4 (Reuters) - The inclusion of two Australian teams has added a new dimension to this season's AFC Champions League, which kicks off with 13 matches in 12 different countries on Wednesday.
Sydney FC and Adelaide United will both make their debuts
in Asia's premier club competition, which will be contested
over eight months by 28 teams from 15 countries.
Australia's decision to ditch Oceania and join Asia in
search of better competition has drawn criticism from some
parts of Asia, but many senior officials including FIFA
President Sepp Blatter believe the move will improve standards
of Asian soccer.
While the Australian national team is one of the favourites
to win the Asian Cup this year, the two club teams are just
happy to be playing in the Champions League.
'It's an historic event for Australian football,' Sydney
captain Mark Rudan told the Sydney Morning Herald.
'All of the Sydney players involved will be able to look
back on their careers and say we, along with Adelaide United,
were the first to represent Australia in this event.
'The players realise only too well how important an
occasion it is.'
Most of Australia's top internationals are based in Europe
and because the Champions League draw was finalised before the
end of the 2007 season, the country's leading club Melbourne,
will not be included until next season.
The two Australian teams are also drawn in the toughest
half of the draw, alongside other teams from Asean and East
Asia, who make up three of the seven groups.
The remaining four groups are made up of teams from West
and Central & South Asia.
Sydney, who qualified by winning the inaugural A-League
championship in 2006, were drawn in Group E along with teams
from China, Japan and Indonesia while Adelaide are in Group F
with clubs from China, South Korea and Vietnam.
Asean and East Asian clubs have won nine of the last 13
Asian club titles although Middle East teams have won three of
the past four with Al Ittihad (Saudi Arabia) triumphing in 2004
and 2005 and Al Ain (United Arab Emirates) in 2003.
The defending champions, Chonbuk Motors of South Korea,
have been given an automatic place in this year's
quarter-finals, with the seven remaining spots to be awarded to
the group winners.
The competition has already attracted controversy after
Esteghal Tehran, champions in 1970 and 1991, were disqualified
for failing to fulfil player registration requirements, leaving
one of the seven groups a team short.
