OK, my mistake. You have to remember that the AFC are doing Wellington a favour allowing participation from a non AFC member. Allowing them into their Champions league is never going to happen. UEFA are not inviting Boca Juniors to play in their competitions.
Being in the AFC Champions League is over rated. You end hosting some team from Indonesia, on a cold mid week night in June. That's presuming that the format now returns to the pre Covid setup of pools H&A.
The Aussie ALM clubs struggled to get fans to turn up when hosting games. I remember living in Brisbane, and the Roar taking games to the Gold Coast, in order to try find some fans. No one was turning up.
Being in the AFC Champions League is over rated. You end hosting some team from Indonesia, on a cold mid week night in June. That's presuming that the format now returns to the pre Covid setup of pools H&A.
The Aussie ALM clubs struggled to get fans to turn up when hosting games. I remember living in Brisbane, and the Roar taking games to the Gold Coast, in order to try find some fans. No one was turning up.
So summary being, aussies are fair weather football fans?
Being in the AFC Champions League is over rated. You end hosting some team from Indonesia, on a cold mid week night in June. That's presuming that the format now returns to the pre Covid setup of pools H&A.
The Aussie ALM clubs struggled to get fans to turn up when hosting games. I remember living in Brisbane, and the Roar taking games to the Gold Coast, in order to try find some fans. No one was turning up.
So summary being, aussies are fair weather football fans?
It would be the same with the Nix. Yes there would be an initial novelty value. But Chiangrai United won't pull a crowd on a cold wet Wednesday night in June.
Even the top drawer Japanese, Korean & Chinese teams would struggle to draw big crowds in Welly. That's again based on pre Covid when AFC Champions League games were mostly played mid week in night time in winter. That may change going forward
Being in the AFC Champions League is over rated. You end hosting some team from Indonesia, on a cold mid week night in June. That's presuming that the format now returns to the pre Covid setup of pools H&A.
The Aussie ALM clubs struggled to get fans to turn up when hosting games. I remember living in Brisbane, and the Roar taking games to the Gold Coast, in order to try find some fans. No one was turning up.
Agree, and it's not a competition that any A-League club let alone the Nix is gonna go far in atm.
It just f*cks up your league season (look at how City nearly fell apart last season, and then did fall apart in the GF) all to go out in the group stage. None of the teams draw a crowd, and the novelty is weak. The Nix aren't really missing out lol. There's three Australians trophies that can be realistically aimed at by a fair few teams, ACL participation is merely a bonus.
I'd love for us to be able to play in a proper continental competition, we must be the only side ineligible on Earth.
BUT as others have pointed out, Asia/Fifa need to make the comp a bit more interesting then it currently is and schedule it better.
I do think the Nix have one advantage over the Aussie teams in that they have the whole of NZ to play the games in. They could spread the love to Hamilton, Tauranga, Napier, PN, Dunedin, Nelson etc to give local football tragics a taste of pro football instead of the usual 3 choices (CHC, WLG, AKL).
It could also be used by the Nix as trials for Aussie and kiwi players trying to show that they belong in a pro environment. Don't forget that most decent Euro teams play their reserves/youth in early rounds of all Cup competitions, domestic or continental.
I'd love for us to be able to play in a proper continental competition, we must be the only side ineligible on Earth.
BUT as others have pointed out, Asia/Fifa need to make the comp a bit more interesting then it currently is and schedule it better.
I do think the Nix have one advantage over the Aussie teams in that they have the whole of NZ to play the games in. They could spread the love to Hamilton, Tauranga, Napier, PN, Dunedin, Nelson etc to give local football tragics a taste of pro football instead of the usual 3 choices (CHC, WLG, AKL).
It could also be used by the Nix as trials for Aussie and kiwi players trying to show that they belong in a pro environment. Don't forget that most decent Euro teams play their reserves/youth in early rounds of all Cup competitions, domestic or continental.
I did once go down a Wikipedia rabbit hole trying to figure out if we were "the only side ineligible on Earth". Covid makes it difficult to determine but with Europe having Europa League winners going into Champions League, Concacf having the previous years Caribbean Club Champion, Asia Champions League having previous years AFC Cup, it was difficult to find other sides that could claim to have no path (other than political reasons / club licensing issues etc).
Who cares? OFC CL is an embarrassing sharkshow. AFC CL the Aussie teams hardly ever do very well in, is also poorly organised and doesn't draw much crowds, and always stuffs up their domestic performance.
Outside UEFA the whole champions league system is disjointed and needs a major overhaul.
I would have the same logo, anthem and format on all continents to make it more appealing. Do away with the club world cup and instead rebrand it into something like the World Champions league with all winners playing a mini tournament
The other oddity though, are teams from French Polynesia are eligible for both the OCL and Europa League, as the winner of the local cups qualify for the Coupe De France, the winner of that gets automatic qualification to the Europa League. The chance is extremely remote, but it is possible.
So, we're odd because we can't qualify for anything, but plenty of teams can qualify for multiple confederations.
I'd rather we performed consistently well in the competition we're actually in, and win it, before thinking about being allowed to play anywhere else...