‘World Class’ scraping Saudi, ACL turned ‘Chuchun Festival’, and the K League’s dilemma of which player’s face will change if they make it past the group stage
The Asian Champions League (ACL) will be played as the “Spring Festival” starting in 2023. It will kick off with the qualifiers this month and conclude with the final two legs on May 18 next year. A change from the European system.
“By synchronizing the transfer market with global league seasons, it will allow Asia’s top clubs to recruit better players and managers, and balance club competition with national team competition by spreading it out evenly throughout the year,” said the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
The AFC’s wishes are being fulfilled by Saudi Arabia. The kingdom is using its “oil money” to lure world-class players from around the world. Backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, Al Hilal, Al Ittihad, Al Nasr, and Al Ahli have guaranteed astronomical player salaries, and have attracted stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Sadio Mane, Fabinho, and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic. With the influx of star players, ACL levels have skyrocketed.
While the Middle East, which was one of the early adopters of the new league system, is changing rapidly, the reality in East Asia is different. It’s not easy to make the switch. In Europe, the temperature doesn’t drop below freezing in winter and the grass doesn’t die, but in Korea, where the weather is colder, the ground freezes, there is a shortage of training fields, and the number of spectators is expected to plummet.카지노
Above all, the four teams in the ACL are expected to perform a skit. It is inevitable that the faces of the players who play in the group stage of the tournament, which runs from September 18 to December 13, and the tournament that resumes in mid-February, will be different. With the regular season ending in December, most K League teams have January-February to prepare their squads for the new season. Teams participating in the ACL are no exception, which means there will likely be a different mix of local and foreign players in the group stage and tournament. There will also be differences in organization and physical fitness. These are the dilemmas that the K League faces.
