Hindmarsh Vs AAMI - ACL Final Venue

Adelaide United are in with a huge chance of being the first A-league club to make a final of the AFC Champions League. After a 3-0 victory in the first leg of their semi final on Wednesday night (what a result!) they only need to prevent their opponents, Bunyodkor from winning the second leg by 3 clear goals and they will be through to the final - and will qualify for the Club World Cup.

It's been a brilliant run, a brilliant story and a happy ending seems very possible.

One big issue that has come up, is where Adelaide United should play the final match, should they get there. If Adelaide beats Bunyodkor, they will host the second leg of the Champions league final - against either Urawa or Gamba Osaka of Japan. On the surface, it would appear there are 3 options - Adelaide's traditional home ground, Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide Oval (where Adelaide have played a game in the past) or AAMI Stadium, the home of AFL in Adelaide.

Hindmarsh Stadium has been sold out for both Adelaide's Quarter and Semi final matches, which demonstrates the interest this tournament has generated in the city. The final would potentially draw a huge crowd, I would anticipate that even AAMI Stadium, which holds 52,000 people would be sold out for the final. Especially when you consider that we could have 10,000 fans coming from Japan for the game.

May would suggest, the best option would be Adelaide Oval. United have played there before, the venue is right in the heart of the city and it has a capacity of over 30,000. Unfortunately the Asian Football Confederation does not like grassed areas, so these may be unavaliable for the final, taking away the Oval's capacity advantage. Add to that, it is cricket season, and the pitch would not be in good condition for such an important match. Unfortunately, Adelaide Oval is out of the question.

What about AAMI Stadium, then? Is it a real option? I'm going to compare AAMI to hindmarsh, and try to outline all the advantages/disadvantages of AAMI, compared to Hindmarsh.

AAMI Stadium

AAMI Stadium is the home of Australian Rules football in South Australia. For many years it hosted SANFL matches, and more recently has hosted all home matches played by the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide in the AFL. It's an oval venue, it's stands have a gentle slope, and it has a second tier on one side, extending along one corner of the ground.

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It's a poorly desinged venue in my opinion (why they built a second tier at the Northern end before putting a second tier on the outer side is beyond me). Even for AFL, the view for spectators is not good. If you attend a game of AFL at AAMI, you get used to watching half the match on the big screens. Not only that, but it is poorly located - crowds are definately affected by the stadiums location in West Lakes. The added drive time, plus the fact that there is not much to do before/after the game in West Lakes definately takes away from the experience of attending matches there.

Of course, if it's not a good venue for AFL - it's a terrible venue for football. The stands are quite a way from the action, and with a venue like AAMI you can't have the intimacy you get at Hindmarsh. The size of the playing surface isn't actually that bad. I used Google earth to compare AAMI's dimensions to a typical stadium with an athletics track (used commonly in world football) - this is the stadium I compared AAMI to, it's Miyagi Stadium in Japan, which hosted 3 world cup games in 2002:

The Miyagi stadium is about 10 metres longer than AAMI, and 2 metres narrower. If anything, AAMI should be better than Miyagi for football. Here are some dimensions of other oval grounds that have been used for football (all measurements are taken from the front row of seating):

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AAMI Stadium: 143x182m

Ataturk (2005 UEFA Champions League Final Stadium): 130x190m

MCG: 148x177m

Olympic Park (Melbourne): 112x178m

Athens Olympic Stadium: 123x184m

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Of course this doesn't take into account the slope of the stands, AAMI's stands have a very gentle slope, while most of the other stadiums have stands that rise steeply - so that those at the back are still fairly close to the action. Also, most stadiums with athletics tracks have the stands raised by a few metres, so if you are in the first row you are about 5m above the playing surface and still get a good view.

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Still, AAMI doesn't seem all that bad to me - certainly no worse than the MCG, and not that far behind stadiums like the Telstra Dome or the Miyagi Stadium. I decided to try and 'visualise' what it would be like to attend a football match at AAMI, unfortunately I couldn't find any pictures of football matches which have been played at AAMI in the past (Argentina played Saudi Arabia at the venue 20 years ago - there has been an NSL game there as well), but this is what it would be like to watch football at AAMI:

Doesn't seem all that terrible, does it?

Of course there are other things to consider. By moving to AAMI stadium for one match, Adelaide United could have part of their home ground advantage taken away - a big home crowd could go part of the way towards making up for this, but I'm sure Aurelio Vidmar and the United players would ideally like to stick to familiar surroundings. Prehaps, if AAMI were to be used, United could hold a few training sessions there, to help with this.

Another thing to consider is the playing surface. It is not AFL season, so the turf at AAMI would be perfect, however one potential problems is that the surface at AAMI is not completely flat - the center is around 1 metre higher than the edges of the ground. This could be frowned upon by the AFC.

Overall though, AAMI doesn't seem like that bad a choice to me. Assuming the AFC allow it, we would make more money out of a game there (even though some of our money would probably have to go to the SANFL, who own the ground), and a lot of new supporters would get to see Adelaide United. It would also ensure that the hardcore fans (of both Adelaide and the away side) would not miss out on tickets. It would be good for the game to have 52,000 fans at the Champions league final.

Hindmarsh Stadium

On the other hand, we have Hindmarsh Stadium. Hindmarsh is United's home ground, and is a great place to watch football. You are nice and close to the action, the atmosphere is good (which happens when you have intimate venues), the surface is perfect and the general facilities are also good.

It does have it's problems - the ground is not that easily accessible, parking is hard to find, there is limited public transport to the venue and of course it only holds 17,000 people. All these problems are caused by the fact that Hindmarsh is situated quite close to roads and other businesses, meaning potential for expansion is very limited. Prehaps one day the surrounding properties could be bought, transport and parking could be improved, the ground could be expanded, and United could have a perfect home venue, but for now, this is irrelevant.

It has been suggested that temporary seating could be erected for the match - which was done for the Olympic football in 2000, but even if this could be organised in the few weeks we have untill the game, it would only allow another 3-4000 fans to attend.

If there's one major advantage that Hindmarsh has in this debate, it's the fact that it's United's home ground. The ACL final may well be very tight, and having a ground that the players are used to, may just be the difference. If we were to win the champions league, we would get an extra $200k in prizemoney (compared to coming second - of course we would probably gain more money than that from ticket sales if the match was played at AAMI), plus we would get an easier draw at the Club World Cup, and we would claim the title of Asia's best club. If United does end up playing the final at Hindmarsh, it should be for these reasons - if it wasn't for this, I think AAMI would be the obvious choice.

I think it would be a great shame, and maybe a little embarassing to have such a huge game played infront of only 17,000 fans. Not to metion the loss of income, when there are many who won't be able to get tickets, and many Japanese fans who won't travel to Adelaide, even though they would like to.

I would hate for dedicated supporters to miss out on seeing the game, and I do feel that it's better to have a ticket, than to have a perfect view.

For these reasons, I hope Adelaide United strongly considers AAMI Stadium as a venue for the ACL final, and I hope they do decide to hold the match there. Most of what I have read and heard in the press suggests that Adelaide United do plan to play the match at Hindmarsh (although there were some reports that they would look at AAMI stadium), but there is still time to reconsider.

In my opinion, the best thing to do, would be to use AAMI. Make the decision now, get into AAMI and install some good quality player benches, ensure the pitch is in as good condition as possible and try and get a good deal with the SANFL (so that the profit from the game goes to football, rather than AFL). It would seem appropriate, that United's biggest ever match, would be played in front of 50,000 fans.

Bye for now,

Matt

Asian Club Football in 2009

As the start of the 2008 AFC Champions league draws closer, mystery still surrounds the future of the tournament, with the AFC planning to 'revamp' the champions league, as well as 10 of the big Asian leagues, in 2009. Although the tournament was great to watch last year - it was very obvious that the format needed a few changes. Fans of Sydney FC will no doubt agree to this, as they were bundled out in the group stage - despite getting several good results and finishing second in their group of four. This is one thing that will be changed in 2009 - the top two from every group will go on to the knockout stages. Let's look at the rumored changes in more detail:

- The group stage will consist of 8 groups of 4, including four groups made up of East-Asian teams and four groups that will involve only teams from West Asia. The champion from the previous year will no longer receive a bye through the group stage.

- The top two from each group will move onto the round of 16 (rumored to be taking place before the Winter break), and from there the tournament will be a straight knockout. Teams from East and West Asian will be kept seperate untill the quarter finals.

- The Final match will no longer be played over two legs, but will be a single game - played at a neutral venue.

- The number of teams from each country will no longer be limited to two.

All these changes are certainly a step in the right direction, but I would like to make a couple of points. Firstly on the knockout stages - I don't think the idea of having a round of knockout matches before the mid-year break is a good one. It makes a lot more sense to have the group stages before the break, and play all the knockout rounds after the break - and balance out the year better.

Secondly I'm not sure that playing the final as one game will work. It works beautifully in Europe, but over there you have thousands and thousands of fans from all the big clubs who would be prepared to travel across the continent to watch their team play - the tournament also has a lot more prestige, so wherever the game is played - the stadium will be packed. Asia is a much bigger continent for a start, and although there are a few big clubs that would probably have at a few thousand fans traveling for the final, if ever a smaller club were involved - you'd be lucky to get a hundred fans travelling.

One more interesting point is the splitting up of East/West Asia - I certainly support this in the group stages as it means travel times are reduced and teams don't have to adjust to completely different timezones. I would even suggest that this be continued right through untill the final - you could even treat it as two tournaments - have the "East Asian Champions league" and the "West Asian Champions league" - and then the two winners would play-off. In fact there is a strong argument that the entire Asian Confederation should be split into two - it's already the biggest confederation and the middle east is closer to England than Australia. This, however, is a matter for another blog...

So far, the changes I have discussed have been, in the main, good ones - changes that will be welcomed by the Asian Football community. However there are a few more issues that have been mentioned as part of the AFC's revamp. The AFC wants to keep the ACL for the big professional Asian leagues, and it seems likely that many smaller leagues may have their allocation of teams reduced, or removed completely, from the Champions League.

Personally I do not agree with this at all - it is all well and good to want to improve the standard of football in the ACL, but you should be giving clubs from all the decent Asian leagues at least a chance to get into Asia's premier club competition. The smart thing to do would be to have a qualifying system like in Europe - you could give 16 spots in the group stages to the 'big' Asian leagues (generally considered to be the 4 East-Asian leagues of Japan, China, South Korea and Australia as well as the 4 big West Asian leagues of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE) and then have 32 more teams playing a knockout tie in February to decide the other 16 spots. Prehaps the loosers could receive a spot in the AFC Cup - a second tier competition similar to the UEFA Cup.

The AFC's revamp also extends beyond the Champions league - there have been reports that the AFC is planning to make big changes to several of Asia's big leagues - including the A-league. Around 12 months ago the AFC did a study which identified 10 leagues, the national leagues of Australia, Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore, India, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which would be relaunched - sometime between 2009 and 2012. Some of the rumored changes, such as increasesd transparency and making the leagues more professional make a lot of sense - however the A-league and FFA are in for a shock if the AFC, as is rumored, forces all leagues to have promotion and relegation.

Some of the other potential changes are interesting, and could certainly be good ones - salary caps could help increase competitiveness, especially in Japan and Korea - this needs to be done carefully however, as you don't want to drive talent away from Asian leagues and into the lower leagues of Europe. I would like to see a standard foreign player rule - currently the A-league allows four foreigners in each side - I would like to see this changed to allow for 5 foreigners - but only three non-asians. The advantage of this is that it encourages development of Asian football - in much the same way that the foreign player rule in the A-league encourages development of Australian players.

There is no doubt that Asian football has a big future, and the Asian Champions league is crucial to that future - and also brings a lot of potential for Australian clubs. Let's just hope the AFC makes the right decisions, and doesn't make the sort of decisions that will do more harm than good.

Bye for now,
Matt

PS. The growth of Asian football would also be helped by an improvement in football broadcasting in the region. Maybe it is just because Australia is out of the loop (unlike most Asian Countries we do not have access to Star Sports or the Asian version of ESPN), but we get heaps of TV coverage of European football, and no where near enough coverage of football from other parts of Asia. On Wednesday all of Asia's big guns will kick off their World Cup qualifying campaigns, but the only TV coverage we get is of Australia's game - meanwhile several International friendlies from Europe (with no real significance) will be shown here... we get no coverage of any Asian leagues (apart from the A-league) and limited coverage of the Champions league. It is an area that needs attention, hopefully the likes of Fox Sports can address these problems - hopefully with the help of channels like Star Sports.

Good games, Unfortunate results.

Urawa 0 - 0 Sydney FC
AC Milan 2 - 1 Liverpool

Sydney can't do enough to score against Urawa, they certainly put in a good performance though and could have won it with a bit of luck. Urawa didn't play that well - I was hoping for a nice attacking game, but they ruined any chance of that. Great atmosphere though and they probably do deserve to go through.

Devastated that Liverpool lost this morning, they were playing some fantastic football - especially in the first half, and had chances to score. Milan got a lucky free kick and as soon as they went ahead it was always going to be tough for the Reds. Milan's theatrics in the second half were shameful - the ref didn't do anything to stop it either, which just made things worse. Some poor defending by liverpool and it's 2-0 with 10 minutes to go. When Kuyt scored it made things interesting, but unfortunately this was one final Liverpool couldn't grab an amazing win - mind you I was annoyed that the ref stopped the game 50 seconds early (including the 30 seconds he should have added on for the substitution) - that's just plain cheating - and with Liverpool, you never know what might have happened in those last seconds.

Yes, I'm bitter about it, even as an Everton fan - on a brighter note, Harry Kewell looked sharp when he came on, didn't have any space to work with though and couldn't make a real impact on the game, but I still think he's looking better than he has for years.

In fairness, I think Liverpool deserved to win this game, but let's be honest - it was the other way around in 2005.

PS. Well done to Adelaide United on their 3-0 win last night in their last Champions league game for the season, and well done to Carl Veart who's had a great career. Travis Dodd scored a nice hat-trick, I might just take some credit for that as I wished him luck last week when I saw him at the Olyroos game (see profile photo). Unlike Sydney we have next year's competition to look forward to - hopefully we can make the most of it next time around.

Two Years On...

May 25, 2005. I awake around 5am, turn on my tv and see that Liverpool are 3-0 down to AC Milan in the Champions league final. I'm a little disappointed, after suprising everyone by getting this far it looks like it's an anti-climax for Liverpool fans in the final. I was considering going back to bed when Steven Gerrard pops up with a goal - the look on his face said it all - game on. An hour later and Liverpool are champions of Europe, in one of the greatest football matches I have ever seen.

Two years on and the same two teams are again facing off, this time Liverpool is no longer a suprise packet, and look a much better side than two years ago. Having said that Milan deserve to be favourites after their impressive semi-final win over Man United. I think anyone will agree, if the game delivers anything like the excitement of two years ago it will be great to watch.

As I compare this game to the match in 2005, I compare my feelings and passion for football and there is one big difference. Two years ago, the A-league was only being talked about, as was Australia's potential entry into Asia. Now, the A-league is a massive success, and Sydney FC are looking forward to their own big, continental match. Finally Australian football has something to compare to what the big clubs of Europe are going through.

Tonight, Sydney FC travels to the Saitama Stadium in Japan, 60 thosand fanatical Urawa Reds fans will be on hand for effectively a knockout tie. The atmosphere in Japan will rival that of big European matches. It strikes me as amazing, that only two years ago, this was a pipe dream. It begs the question - where will we be in 2009?

Unfortunately I don't think Sydney will be good enough to win, their lack of match fitness is going to hurt them, and they need to be at their very best to beat Urawa. Let's hope they put in a good performance though, as that would at least promote the A-league as a high quality competition.

As for the European Champions league... I think this one could go either way, if Liverpool is to win, Steven Gerrard will need to fire - without him, Milan are too classy. I also expect Harry Kewell to play a part, hopefully off the bench, as he could make a big impact in my opinion. Over the past few years he's made several comebacks, and he's always taken a lot of time to get back into decent form. This time is different, already he looks fast and in form.

Good luck Sydney, Good luck Liverpool, Good luck Harry. It's going to be an interesting 12 hours...

PS. For now, here's a reminder of 2005 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goW3aIuqycs