By Michael Church
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Al-Ain of the United Arab Emirates launch the defence of their continental title against Qatar’s Al-Sadd on Monday as Hernan Crespo’s side usher in a new higher-stakes era of regional club football with the revamped Asian Champions League Elite.
Crespo’s team defeated Yokohama F Marinos in May in the last final played under the previous format, with the new edition featuring a field trimmed to 24 participants from 40 and chasing a potential first prize that has tripled to $12 million.
The long-standing group phase, used in various forms since 2002, has been abandoned in favour of a new Swiss League system which splits the clubs into 12-team east and west Asian leagues, with each to play eight group games starting from Monday.
The league phase will continue until early February, with schedules determined by a computer-assisted draw held in Kuala Lumpur last month.
The first eight finishers in each league will advance to the knockout rounds, which will be played in March before the action moves into a centralised phase in Saudi Arabia for the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final, which will be held on May 4.
Al-Ain overcame the odds to win last year’s competition ahead of the newly enriched club sides of Saudi Arabia, with Crespo masterminding victories over big-spending Al-Nassr – home to Cristiano Ronaldo – and Al-Hilal in their run to the final.
The Emiratis will meet both of those clubs again in the league phase of the 2024-25 edition, as well as a third Saudi side, Al-Ahli, and Qatar’s Al-Gharafa and Al-Rayyan, Pakhtakor of Uzbekistan and Iraq’s Al-Shorta.
Al-Ain’s hopes of becoming only the fifth club to retain the title were boosted by retaining the services of Moroccan striker Soufiane Rahimi, whose tournament-leading 13 goals were instrumental in his team’s success last season.
Yokohama F Marinos are among the 12 clubs in the eastern half of the draw and start their campaign against South Korea’s Gwangju FC on Tuesday with Harry Kewell, who led the Japanese team to the final in May, long gone from the head coach’s role.
The Australian and the Marinos parted company in July after a poor run of form left the team well adrift of the J-League title race. He has been replaced on an interim basis by Kewell’s ex-assistant John Hutchinson.
Former champions Ulsan HD and Pohang Steelers, both from South Korea, headline the eastern half of the draw, which also features Chinese trio Shanghai Port, Shanghai Shenhua and Shandong Taishan as well as Japanese champions Vissel Kobe.
(Reporting by Michael Church; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
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