AFC Champions League gets finale fitting of fundamentally flawed tournament | John Duerden

Al-Ahli’s Firas al-Buraikan scores the only goal of the game in extra-time. Photograph: Ali Issa/AP

It was the second successive final between clubs from two countries on opposite sides of Asia and with opposite philosophies, after Al-Ahli’s 2-0 win over Kawasaki Frontale a year ago. The home team started with nine foreigners, Machida hadthree. In Al-Ahli’s semi-final win over Vissel Kobe, that ratio was 10 to 1. Saudi Arabia have the club title again, but the media in Japan have pointed to their national team being on a different level as proof of a healthier football ecosystem.

If Al-Ahli had had to play in Japan, the outcome could have been very different. That would have been the case for much of the Champions League’s history, but for the past two seasons the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has decided that the knockout stages from the quarter-finals onwards are held in Jeddah.

That both years the tournament has been won by a team from the same Red Sea port may not be a coincidence. This format means Al-Ahli did not play an away game in the knockout stage. It is unfair, damages the tournament’s integrity and is quite boring. Organisers have never really explained why the old system, with two-legged ties played home and away, needed to be scrapped.

Tractor and Shabab Al-Ahli played their semi-final in Jeddah to a crowd of 395 in a stadium that holds 27,000. Photograph: Abdullah Ahmed/Getty Images

It has other consequences Crowds when Saudi teams play are big – Jeddah is a genuine football hotbed with the two clubs, Al-Ahli and Al-Ittihad, blessed by large and passionate support. For the semi-final between Machida and Shabab Al-Ahli from Dubai, however, only 395 people showed up.

This is not unique to Saudi Arabia and there would probably be a similar outcome elsewhere in Asia, which is why neutral venues are a bad idea. To have such a crowd at such a late stage in a continental tournament was, as one AFC official admitted, embarrassing. More, they said, should be done to attract larger audiences, but conceded that even if a few thousand did show up the format would still be a fundamental problem.

It is not just the knockout stages. Only 12 of the AFC’s 47 member nations were allowed to enter a team (two more will get a playoff spot next time), leaving three-quarters of the continent out in the cold. The group stage is messy with two pots of 12 and teams playing only eight games. The war in the Middle East complicated things further, causing the postponement of games in West Asia with last-16 ties moved from March to April.

At least the Iranian champions, Tractor SC, made it to Saudi Arabia, but that was a rare positive story from a Champions League that few outside Jeddah will remember fondly.