May 17, 2004
The Asian Football Confederation has cleared up the confusion regarding qualification for the knockout stage of the inaugural AFC Cup, outlining the procedure that will be used to determine the 3 best second-placed finishers who will progress to the quarter-finals of the tournament.
Under the original format of the competition, the 20 teams were divided into five groups of four teams each, with the group winners advancing to the last eight along with the three second-placed teams with the best records. However, the late withdrawal of Yemen Al Wahda Sana'a & Bangladesh Mohammedan from the AFC Cup it left 2 of the groups with just 3 teams. As a result, the AFC Competitions Committee had to devise a new system to determine the best runners-up.
In a letter sent to the national associations participating in the AFC Cup, the regional football governing body advised that it will be using a 'points average' system to determine the best second-place finishers in the Group Stage.
To determine the point average for each of the runner-up teams, the total number of points obtained in all group matches by the team will be divided by the total number of matches played. The teams with the 3 highest averages will go into the quarter-final draw. In the event that 2 or more teams have a similar points average, the final ranking will be determined firstly on goal difference, followed by number of goals scored and number of wins. In the event that teams are still tied, a drawing of lots will ensue.
The adoption of the revised system means that six teams had already secured their places in the quarter-finals. Lebanon Al Nejmeh, Syria Al Jaish and India East Bengal have already been confirmed as winners of Groups A, C & E respectively, while Lebanon Olympic Beirut , Singapore Home United & Malaysia Perak have already done enough to qualify for the last 8.
Olympic will finish second to Al Jaish in Group C, but their points average of 1.75 garnered from earning seven points in four games ensures that they will be one of the top three group runners-up. Home United & Perak are still battling it out for top spot in Group D but with the two teams assured of a points average of at least 1.83 after earning 11 points thus far in the Group Stage, both will definitely advance, whether as a group winner or one of the top runners-up.
That leaves 2 spots still up for grabs.
In Group B, Al Wahda of Syria and Dhofar of Oman will battle it out for first place when they meet in Damascus. Al Wahda lead the group by a single point & need only a draw to advance as group winners while Dhofar need an away win to progress. The low points averages of both teams means that neither side can go through as a group runner-up.
The last group runner-up will be either Singapore Geylang United or Turkmenistan Nisa. Geylang United are in the driving seat with 10 points in Group E & they will need only a home draw against group minnows Island FC of Maldives to assure themselves of a better points average than Nisa. In the unlikely event that they lose to Island, Geylang are still in a strong position with a significantly better goal difference than the Turkmen side.
The draw for the AFC Cup quarter-finals will be made in Beijing on May 28. There will be no seedings for the draw with the only stipulation that teams from the same country or the same first round group will be kept apart in the quarter-final round.