I agree with the first part. An Iranian should not referee a match involving an Arab team and vice versa. I can not tell you how many times Iran was screwed by Arab referees. You should have seen the Asia Cup semifinal in 2004 between Iran and China. Now that was disgusting. That ref robbed Iran of what could have an new Asian Cup Champions title to its tally, where we would have met Japan in the final. A match we very well could have won, given how we dominated them in the group game and Iran was imo the best team in Asia in 2004. I agree Faghani was unfair in ACL final. But I have seen worse. The point is AFC should not appoint Arab or Iranian referees to matches involving Iran and Arab teams respectively.
Agree. It's a bit boring with only 16 teams. After all it is Asia. The most populous continent. The football might be worse than anywhere else expect North America but this is something that the AFC should take a look at. I don't know if they value "quality" over quantity. I don't follow Asian football that closely so I cannot comment on it but there is no doubt bias involved. Just like when Spanish referees are referring Portuguese teams or vise versa or German referees referring French teams and vice versa. Many other examples. For instance France-UK, Poland-Russia let alone the Balkans. I know for once that this is not done in high level tournaments in Europe outside of the very famous referees that have proven to not be biased. Then it does not matter. But when it comes to Asian referees which are not the greatest the bias is usually big. On the other hand there are probably referees who are not biased. So we should not generalize although I believe that my observation is not so wrong again. I for instance would prefer to see European or South American referees at the AFC. Much, much better referees and there would be no bias involved.
In general AFC referees suck dick. Many of them blow their whistle at slightest physical contact. Thats one of the reasons (obviously there are more) why Asia is lagging too much behind Europe and SA. They have more physical football. In this day and age, technique and finesse is not so much an important factor as having physically strong players with body strength and stamina.
It seems that the Arab referee that was apparently biased in that semifinal in 2004 was/is Lebanese. On the other hand you had a Kuwaiti referee when you won in the quarter-finals against South Korea that same year. So we might be paranoid here. So more Arabi and Farsi referees, please! 2004 AFC Asian Cup - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia To the defense of Alireza Faghani then he was at least not biased in the second half that I saw today. I based my opinion of him beforehand on his bad and biased performance in the AFC Champions League final against Sydney Wanderers (first final game) and the fact that the bias is present in Asia among referees as we also discussed and seem to agree with. Yes, I agree about that. Do you believe so? Yes, surely physicality is important but I would still say that tactics, technique, experience and the ability to play as a team are more important factors. For instance the parts of the game I saw today then KSA were clearly faster and better technically but tactically they were lacking while China defended well. As I wrote then I did not watch the first half so I cannot say if China dominated that half completely. Anyway the AFC for a football freak like me is a nice tournament to follow. At least the knockout rounds. Anyway does not matter. KSA is so far from its heydays and I doubt that KSA will ever again qualify for 5 AFC finals in a row (1984-2000) which also is a insane achievement (IMO). 6 out of 7 finals from 1984-2007 actually. I very much doubt that they would come near the final this year. The football federation is corrupt, clowns are still playing instead of talented youngsters and new managers are appointed every other day (almost). It's a joke. Since 2007 it has been pathetic though. As I told you in that other thread then you guys (Iran) have a much, much bigger chance of achieving something useful this year. Actually I think that Australia might be slight favorites. Japan closely behind and then countries like Iran, South Korea, UAE etc. I have not seen what the bookmakers are saying though on this front. Just my own guesses.
KSA has good players and talent pool, but their federation sucks. It is way too reactionary, where they fire a coach after bad result or string of results instead of sticking with him. You need a long term planning. Iran sucks in its federation too, but they seem to have got it right that they appointed CQ. But there are many other things wrong with Iranian and Saudi football infrastructure.
Quantity is too low when you compare the number of teams in the qualification round (group stages) it is too low (only 20) and the final tournament itself is between 16. We need to give up the BS "AFC Challenge Cup" category tournament. Out of the 46 members at least 32 should be able to participate in the qualifiers group-stages, the 24 "emerging nations" can play a 2-legged knock-out qualifier and the winners can join the others into the qualification groups.
I think that the problem is also the mentality of the players. They get pampered in their respective clubs back home or in other GCC countries. They earn the bucks (it being the GCC) while had they been playing elsewhere then that would not be the case if we are brutally honest. The few players who went to Europe and actually had the talent to succeed were crying about it being too hard, too cold, too low pay etc. so they went back the year after. That's the reality of KSA football nowadays. On the other hand many Iranian players are playing back home where the pay is more humble and I think that this makes you less spoilt and better at withstanding drawbacks. It appears to me that KSA are pathetic once they concede. There is hardly any fighting spirit to get back. Unlike past generations that were famed for this. All in all it is a big joke. The football federation, the constant manager changes, the moronic squad changes etc. López might have lost the Gulf Cup Final against Qatar but he did a great job overall. Improved the team. Yet 1 years of progress was destroyed by the idiots because they wanted a new toy (coach). Expect the Romanian dude to get fired after the AFC because KSA is not going to quality from the group after today's result. I am 98% certain of this. KSA needs someone like Capello. Someone that can kick *** and install a fierce discipline. This generation does not understand anything else. How is Bangladeshi football? I only know Bangladesh in terms of sports for one thing and that is cricket but you guys are yet to win a World Cup and Asian Cup in cricket I believe. So many people to choose from. You must specialize in something for the future. Anyway I agree with your post. 32 teams would be a good number. Like during the World Cup if I am not wrong.
How do you feel when salt is poured on a cut along with lemonade? That's how it feels watching Bangladesh National team. Forget about the players, first we don't have a National Football Stadium (Bangabandhu National Stadium is used for multiple purposes) and also in our recent friendly against Sri Lanka, the pitch wasn't even flat but too rigid. Also we don't play friendly football matches that much and if we don't have any competition to play in we rarely play international football that year. Last year (2014) Bangladesh only played 3 matches and all of them were friendlies. For the lack and gap in International games, we can't build on good performances (2013 AFC Challenge Cup) and thus the team succumb to new fans demands (improvements). Also, young children would rather become cricketers or take up other jobs than become footballers as it pays too low. Thus many don't take the profession seriously and don't invest much time into it at young ages. Since football isn't a game for a middle-aged man (35+), the fear of falling into poverty is always there. Except for cricket where we are almost average, the best way to tell our football abilities is that we sucks like a black hole.
Thanks for the nice and detailed reply. That indeed sounds problematic. At least you got cricket but from what I can see you are yet to win a World Cup or Asian Cup. Maybe this will change if cricket as I presume is the by far most popular sport in Bangladesh? At least you got a HUGE potential talent pool to pick from! Bangladesh national cricket team - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In KSA it's basically football and nothing else sport wise (I am of course overreacting here for the sake of it) but football is by FAR the most popular sport in KSA and the Arab world in its entirety. Just like everywhere else in the world (almost). About people not wanting to pursue a football career. It's the same thing in KSA. Also some more religious families and parts of the society look down on sport in its entirety and see it as a waste of time. Thus most football players in KSA are Afro-Arabs or come from somewhat more poor families. The pay is very good in KSA and the GCC though (on the level of Europe for the best players in KSA and GCC) so the players that make it through do not face the same problems like in Bangladesh and elsewhere in South Asia I believe.
Well, in our country no one except from lower-middle-class (very few) or poor families (comparatively larger) take part in sports (only a few from middle-class play cricket). It is considered to be a game for those who don't have the intellectual requirements to get "actual jobs". We aren't tall people (I am BTW, 177 cm) or neither bulked up and thus can't match up physically with other nations. People here don't understand that football not only require physical abilities and skills but a lot of intellect. That's why we are bad at tactical aspect. Thus a long-ball, direct approach is used more and since our players are short, they can't capitalize on it. Also, how common are these during the World Cup?
@Khalid Newazi Same thing in KSA. I do hope that it will change though as you can combine sport at a professional level with education. KSA's team have always been famed for being strong, quick, tall and technically good. We are tall people on average as well (some of the tallest in the world actually). Male Average Height By Country | Map & Chart | Men only Female Average Height By Country | Map & Chart | Women only Those include expatriates as well which are mostly from South Asia and you guys tend to be a bit smaller. So the average height is probably bigger. Most of our team is Afro-Arab (they form about 10% of KSA's population) so this does not make us any less strong, quick etc. In recent years the main problems have been a lack of consistency, constant changes of managers, a moronic football federation and thus all this creates a lack of familiarity tactic wise. Each new manager has also different opinions in terms of how the squad should look like. Not very common. It must have had something to do with the World Cup and some promotion of people that made this. It's cool though. Anyway in principle thobes (and all the other traditional Arab clothing - the diversity is very great) can have all kind of appearances. The photos seem to be from UAE or Qatar. The first two do not look like locals either but on the other hand the GCC is home to some of the most cosmopolitan societies out there and non-natives have started to wear local clothing too.
I give some flying """"s about this, not too many but some. Once Jordan starts losing (which will happen I just know) then I will lose all my """"s lol
They dont want to care as Arab teams were absolute losers, so far.up to now, two Arab teams have managed to win two other Arab teams. Since both group C and D are filled with 3 Arab teams, two Arab teams will reach 1/4, eventually. at the begining 9 out of 16 teams were Arabian while in 1/4 2 out of 8 will be Arabian.thats a shame.AFC from now on should reduce the number of Arab teams to 6 or 7 and instead give more space to south and centre of Asia and New Zealand also should be involved in the tournament as well. @al-Hasani you guys were so great back in 1990, I think the problem with KSA football is that you guys have injected too much money into the league, so no Saudi player would have the plaesure to move to Europ for improving his skills.the same was happening in Iran untill Carlos Ceirouz, came and stopped using proud players from Esteghlal and Perspolis which expend too much money on players.now there is no players from those mentioned teams in team melli. No offence intended.
