By Mark Baber
December 24 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has re-worked the qualification requirements for the 2013 Asian Champions League Group Stage resulting in the UAE losing a spot as Saudi Arabia and Iran each gain one.
The president of the UAE Football Association, Yousuf Al Serkal, explained the reason behind his country’s loss of one of their guaranteed places was “because of our results in the competition and the poor attendance at matches.”
The UAE saw its number of direct entries reduced from 3 to 2. Only Pro League champions Al Ain and President’s Cup winners Al Jazira were guaranteed places. Runners up Al Nasr and third-placed Al Shabab Al Arabi need to qualify through the play-offs. In previous years the second placed team in the Pro League had been guaranteed a place but only two clubs have reached the second round of the ACL in the last four years.
Al Shabab is scheduled to play Iran’s Sabaye Qom for a place in Group B and Al Nasr are playing Lokomotive of Uzbekistan for a place in Group C, both games scheduled for 9 February 2013.
For 2013, the two sides in the AFC West which have seen increases over last year in their guaranteed allocations are Saudi Arabia, who now have four automatic places instead of three, and Iran, who have gone from two automatic places to three.
Yousuf Al Serkal has urged fans to turn out to watch their clubs in the ACL and for clubs to take the tournament seriously (in previous seasons some clubs have fielded second string teams in the tournament) pointing to the success of Qatar in increasing the number of its guaranteed places to four currently from just two in 2010.
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