Next season's revamped and lucrative AFC Champions League will introduce a 3+1 rule for foreign players, it was announced Thursday, while the final will be played in Japan. The Asian Football Confederation said it had been decided to allow each ACL team to field a maximum of four foreign players, one of whom must be from an Asian country. Japan's J-League is introducing a similar system next season, and Asian football's governing body is pushing other member associations to follow suit. “I would love to see a Saudi player playing in Korea and a Korean playing in Saudi Arabia,” said AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam. “By implementing this 3+1 rule, we are giving more chances for Asian players to play for other Asian clubs.” The AFC also chose Japan as the host for the 2009 final, which will be played at a neutral venue for the first time. Japan was selected because of its “ability to promote the event and arouse regional interest.” On Tuesday, the AFC announced that prize money for next season's revamped Champions League, which will feature 32 teams instead of 28, had been massively increased to $14 million. The total budget is $20 million, dwarfing the four million available for this year's event. Of that, 70 percent is dedicated to prize money and incentives. But strict new criteria have been put in place for teams to participate regarding team affairs, attendances, marketing, stadiums, and media arrangements. The AFC said 17 of their member associations were deemed to have the ability to meet the criteria and of these 13 submitted the necessary documents by the Oct. 1 deadline. They were Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Uzbekistan, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, China and South Korea. Japan had earlier met all the criteria and therefore was not required to submit documents while three - Jordan, Syria and Kuwait - failed to meet the deadline. The final decision needs to be rubber-stamped at the AFC's executive committee meeting in Shanghai in Nov. The UAE, meanwhile, will submit a bid to give a new home to the AFC, which is eager to move after a series of squabbles with host country Malaysia.
