Thanks to Jonathan Main for providing this article on Asia's Champions' League.British expatriates living in the Middle-East are afforded few opportunities to watch live sport for a variety of reasons, principally that only association football is played in any great numbers by the natives and no self-respecting Westerners apparently dare to watch the local teams. It was against this rather negative backdrop that I visited the FIFA website last month hoping to find details of the burgeoning Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions’ League with a view to attending some of the matches played in my adopted country of Kuwait.
As the name suggests, the AFC Champions’ League is loosely based on its UEFA counterpart. It began life as the Asian Club Cup in 1967 with Hapoel Tel Aviv crowned as the inaugural winners. Political differences have subsequently seen the Israel Football Association join UEFA, resulting in Israeli club sides now competing with Europe’s elite rather than in Asia.
A glance at the tournament’s past winners shows a familiar trend. The regional powerhouses of Japan, South Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia have provided the winner on all but five occasions since 1985. The current holders are Urawa Red Diamonds of the Japanese J-League.
The 2008 tournament will be the last under the current format in which 28 clubs from 14 countries (league champions and cup winners) contest seven regional groups of four teams, playing on a home and away basis. Entrants from Kuwait are housed within Groups A to D containing the cream of Central and West Asia: a glamorous collection from the football hotbeds of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE and Uzbekistan. Each group winner progresses to the quarter finals where they are joined by the defending champions in a straight, two-legged knock-out competition.
Being on the lookout for a local fixture, Groups B and D immediately gained my interest as they contained the two Kuwaiti sides, Kuwait SC and Al Qadsia. However, next to grab my attention was the topical fact that Iraq’s Al Quwa Al Jawiya (Arabic for “Air Force”) were due to play one of their group matches in Kuwait as they are currently unable to play matches in their own country (credit to one G.W. Bush, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC for that). Their opponents? Saipa, champions of Iran.
Iraq versus Iran……in Kuwait? This was the game for me: surely it would be tasty?
So, last Wednesday (April 9) I made the short trip to Kuwait’s national stadium expecting to be the sole paying customer. After all, who else is going to want to watch these two? I realised my misjudgment upon arrival. Kuwait has a sizeable Iranian community and at least 500 of them had made the effort to cheer on their team, or to goad the Iraqis. Armed with hideous air horns and clothed in Saipa’s distinctive bright orange, the Iranians created a carnival atmosphere and a lot of noise during the build-up to kick-off. No signs, however, of the “home” support from Baghdad.
As the teams emerged, it became apparent that there were a handful of Iraqi fans at the far end of the main stand. Policing was conspicuous by its absence.
It would seem that the Iranian public are more tolerant than your average European football fan as they chanted the name of Ali Daei, the Saipa and Iran national team manager, at every opportunity despite seeing him presiding over the country’s disastrous start to their World Cup qualifying campaign. Given similar circumstances, I’m sure the England manager would be hearing chants of a more vitriolic tone, possibly involving his wife!
To my disappointment, the match turned out to be a quite shocking spectacle: scrappy, bad tempered and punctuated by niggling fouls and writhing, cheating players. At one point during the first half the medical cart was in danger of running out of petrol. Just as well it is cheaper than water in these parts! Saipa were physically stronger and more composed. They took an early lead on seven minutes and never looked like relinquishing or increasing it from that point forward. Jawiya were appalling and barely mustered a single effort on target as the Iranians ran out 1-0 winners.
As for the fans’ rivalry? Constant singing emanated from the two groups without so much as a crossed word, never mind running battles borne of nationalistic hubris. Not quite what I had envisaged!
But at least now I can confirm why Western expatriates are rarely in attendance at football matches in Kuwait. It is not due to concerns over their own safety, but simply because the product on offer is utterly atrocious compared with our own (yes, even the Scottish Premier League!).
Will I go again? I think I'm washing my hair that night.
As the name suggests, the AFC Champions’ League is loosely based on its UEFA counterpart. It began life as the Asian Club Cup in 1967 with Hapoel Tel Aviv crowned as the inaugural winners. Political differences have subsequently seen the Israel Football Association join UEFA, resulting in Israeli club sides now competing with Europe’s elite rather than in Asia.
A glance at the tournament’s past winners shows a familiar trend. The regional powerhouses of Japan, South Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia have provided the winner on all but five occasions since 1985. The current holders are Urawa Red Diamonds of the Japanese J-League.
The 2008 tournament will be the last under the current format in which 28 clubs from 14 countries (league champions and cup winners) contest seven regional groups of four teams, playing on a home and away basis. Entrants from Kuwait are housed within Groups A to D containing the cream of Central and West Asia: a glamorous collection from the football hotbeds of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE and Uzbekistan. Each group winner progresses to the quarter finals where they are joined by the defending champions in a straight, two-legged knock-out competition.
Being on the lookout for a local fixture, Groups B and D immediately gained my interest as they contained the two Kuwaiti sides, Kuwait SC and Al Qadsia. However, next to grab my attention was the topical fact that Iraq’s Al Quwa Al Jawiya (Arabic for “Air Force”) were due to play one of their group matches in Kuwait as they are currently unable to play matches in their own country (credit to one G.W. Bush, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC for that). Their opponents? Saipa, champions of Iran.
Iraq versus Iran……in Kuwait? This was the game for me: surely it would be tasty?
So, last Wednesday (April 9) I made the short trip to Kuwait’s national stadium expecting to be the sole paying customer. After all, who else is going to want to watch these two? I realised my misjudgment upon arrival. Kuwait has a sizeable Iranian community and at least 500 of them had made the effort to cheer on their team, or to goad the Iraqis. Armed with hideous air horns and clothed in Saipa’s distinctive bright orange, the Iranians created a carnival atmosphere and a lot of noise during the build-up to kick-off. No signs, however, of the “home” support from Baghdad.
As the teams emerged, it became apparent that there were a handful of Iraqi fans at the far end of the main stand. Policing was conspicuous by its absence.
It would seem that the Iranian public are more tolerant than your average European football fan as they chanted the name of Ali Daei, the Saipa and Iran national team manager, at every opportunity despite seeing him presiding over the country’s disastrous start to their World Cup qualifying campaign. Given similar circumstances, I’m sure the England manager would be hearing chants of a more vitriolic tone, possibly involving his wife!
To my disappointment, the match turned out to be a quite shocking spectacle: scrappy, bad tempered and punctuated by niggling fouls and writhing, cheating players. At one point during the first half the medical cart was in danger of running out of petrol. Just as well it is cheaper than water in these parts! Saipa were physically stronger and more composed. They took an early lead on seven minutes and never looked like relinquishing or increasing it from that point forward. Jawiya were appalling and barely mustered a single effort on target as the Iranians ran out 1-0 winners.
As for the fans’ rivalry? Constant singing emanated from the two groups without so much as a crossed word, never mind running battles borne of nationalistic hubris. Not quite what I had envisaged!
But at least now I can confirm why Western expatriates are rarely in attendance at football matches in Kuwait. It is not due to concerns over their own safety, but simply because the product on offer is utterly atrocious compared with our own (yes, even the Scottish Premier League!).
Will I go again? I think I'm washing my hair that night.
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