Will the AFC ever get rid of being marked as a federation of corruption and low changes?

When the UEFA announced a new competition would take place, we wondered with a lot of questions. In the end, the UEFA really did: the establishment of the Nations League, modelled from the domestic leagues across the world, divided into four divisions: A, B, C, D. All 55 members were allowed to take place, and the league will act as alternative options for many countries to qualify for the UEFA European Championship, and to a lesser extent, the FIFA World Cup.

The foundation of the UEFA Nations League was met with initial scepticism, but once the inaugural season began in 2018, it would become a massive success. Considering that the UEFA officials criticised the ineffectiveness of friendlies, it was quite realistic for the European football makers to have a new, competitive format. Soon after the UEFA did so, the CONCACAF - composed of countries from North America - also announced the same tournament.

This left only three federations with little reforms in organising new football tournaments: CONMEBOL, OFC and AFC. However, CONMEBOL is unique because it only has ten members taking part of, which is somewhat unfortunate but understandable, they can't organise a bigger football festival with just ten nations. The OFC is not known at football either, with only 15 members, but over 4-5 nations are not even full time members of either OFC or FIFA, effectively only made the OFC with 10 members being full time.

This means the last federation on the talk list is the AFC. The AFC represents Asia, the world's most populous continent, and the AFC has over nearly 50 members, which represents the AFC a huge opportunity to make football better and more attractive. It is also hugely beneficial for the economy, with China, Australia, Japan, India, South Korea and Saudi Arabia are parts of the G20. Trillions of dollars lies underground, waiting to be extracted.

Yet, when it should have been done, the AFC has fallen short on its own vision "The Future is Asia", the motto that is printed below the AFC logo. This made us to question: what, and why, AFC reforms never managed to reach the peak; while at the same time, the question about AFC's favouritism towards a number of nations have also been debated.

I have written before about why Turkey didn't want to join the AFC when it is 97% territory in Asia. Frankly, one of my things underlined when I wrote was the state of corruption in the AFC has been among the worst in all football federations. Only the CAF (Africa) exceeded above the level. Yet the Africans, in spite of their pathetic economy, still try to make its football stronger. The CAF doesn't have a similar Nations League like North America or Europe, but it has a football competition known as "Nations Championship", reserved entirely for domestic players in respective African nations to compete and shine. Played each two years, the tournament, though never gets as much as the attention to the more popular Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON or CAN), is a clear answer from Africa to Europe, having seen many of the continent's talents leaving for brighter prospects on the other half of the Mediterranean Sea when they are/were still babies.

The problem is, my article about Turkey's refusal to join the AFC didn't make clear enough about why Asian football market is unattractive. Let's remember, back in January 2011 when the Asian Cup was happening in Qatar, Australian international Brett Holman gave a remark about Asian competitions that should be seen as a warning sign, "Worldwide it's not recognised as a good tournament". His echo came after then-Australia coach, Holger Osieck, claimed that stadiums were mostly in empty situation to a point Qatar had to deploy soldiers only to serve as audience.

The Australian resentment was quite real, still is. Although joining the AFC, Australia is culturally nothing Asian - it is a product of the British. Yet this is also a major different: Australia's commons with Europe and the Americas, where sports are prized, means a lot for the country as it wants to set a new standard of football that will make them similar to its stronger cousins. It is not a secret: a lot of Australian pundits have openly criticised the AFC's format and setup. This is also even true for other neutral pundits, many saw the AFC the worst of all football federations to exist and organise competitive football.

Supporters of the AFC is likely to justify the poor organisation on distance between members, for instance a flight from Seoul to Dubai lost over 10 hours. Yet a flight Grozny to Madrid represents such a distance, even longer with over 11 hours, and still this doesn't mean teams from Spain and Russia could not face each other. In fact, the Euro 2020 simply addressed that, distance could not prevent the football passion. So, distance argument, what does it mean for?

Currently, the AFC has promised to overhaul the entire system it is functioning for a future study in order to adopt with the new situation. Yet how far will the AFC deliver seems to be dependent on the will of Sheikh Salman Al Khalifa, a member of the Al Khalifa Royal family in Bahrain. This man is pretty much disliked by every other football leaders, largely due to his tacit role on attempting to help his family to arrest Hakeem al-Araibi, once promising footballer who was wrongly framed by the Bahraini regime for instigating the 2011 unrest (as part of the Arab Spring). Sure, let's not forget football leaders from South America, Europe and North America aren't saints, even Michel Platini lost his job; but no federation that is so despicable like the AFC, where political influence is intertwined. I can't blame why Israel never thinks about returning to the AFC, even if competing in the UEFA caused too much difficulties.

Reforms in Asian football are mostly half-baked, uneven, uncertain and short-lived. A sad truth.

There has been a number of plans by the AFC to incorporate or even make new tournaments in order to reduce the standard of football teams between various nations in Asia. The first big thing was the AFC Challenge Cup, a competition reserved for weaker nations in the federation. However, once the Asian Cup was expanded to 24, the tournament was discontinued. Of course, the mess didn't end there: the AFC tried to wrap with the loss by announcing the President's Cup, but the tournament only serve as a... solidarity tournament for teams that sit bottom in world's football. Probably you can mention Laos, Pakistan, Bhutan, Guam, etc. Probably San Marino isn't alone. The tournament began in 2016, but as for 2021, stayed as the only season it was held - the second season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and unclear how would it be rescheduled.

About the AFC Asian Cup, the qualifying round has been a horrible experience. Horrible because of how lengthy it is: it takes you over a month, maybe two or three, just only for one fixture, then again, and again. It's cycled like a boring roundabout that you're familiar, but you feel powerless.

And the AFC Champions League is also another horrible experience. The qualifying round has been an utmost disaster, with only one fixture to determine who shall qualify. They don't permit a second, no home-and-away format. The loser ends his run here. The AFC doesn't provide an alternative either - unlike even Africa's Champions League, leave alone the UEFA's one, clubs once are out, it is complete and all. They didn't even allow these clubs to take part in AFC Cup, the second-tier tournament.

But the biggest batshit of all is the AFC's East-West division. Football is supposed to build a bridge that connect between different cultures, but this is totally non-exist in the AFC format. The AFC designs a clear border where competitive qualifiers in youth level and Asian club tournaments have to be stuck with regions they belong to. Hence, teams from East and Southeast Asia are drawn frequently, the same between West, South and Central Asian teams - with little exposure of the other opponents until the main tournament. This has totally prohibited cultural contacts and disallowed people's movements for improvement. In contrast, Africa has no such policy, even when the cultural different between North and Sub-Sahara is huge. The AFC has just already expanded the Champions League to 40 teams, but this still gave me eyebrow: "WTF are they thinking?"

These reasons, just short, are enough to make the AFC unfavourable on the eyes of football scouts. The question lies now is, will the federation move on? I've some in my list.

First, make a new tournament for national teams. One of my biggest expectation will be the creation of a new, strong Asian competition, and this has to be the AFC Nations League. A Nations League, though with varied impact, will be required to improve football standard among teams in Asia. It has been seen in Europe and North America, as weaker football teams become more and more determined to play better football and even to challenge some of the mightiest giants here.

Second is a third-tier competitive football tournament for clubs. As with the UEFA Nations League, the UEFA also established the Conference League as a mean to serve for countries that do not have so many opportunities to take part in the Europa League or Champions League, thus allowing clubs from a number of new countries to raise. In the inaugural season this year, clubs from Armenia, Estonia and Gibraltar got the honour to have names in UEFA competitions as the first from their countries. A third-tier continental league will be very meaningful to boost football development in the continent.

Third will be a complete abolishment of East-West division in club competitions and youth qualifiers. I would love to see a group stage consisting mixed teams from West and East zone as the mean to be better. For example in the Champions League, a club from Qatar will feel unique when playing against a club from Australia in the group stage; simultaneously it is also possible for a club from South Korea to get challenge from a club based in the UAE in the initial phase. The same thing can also be applied, in both AFC Cup, U-17, U-20 and U-23 levels.

Fourth, the Champions League and AFC Cup need to reconstruct their qualification stages. Instead of deciding in just one match, they need to incorporate both home-and-away schedule, with a number of stage to be applied by the executive committee, as the mean to boost popularity of the sport. And again, I advocate a complete abolishment of East-West zone designation.

Fifth, and the last, I really hope that the AFC will project the home-and-away designation, too, for the U-23 Asian Cup, though I'd rather renamed it U-22 Asian Cup for the sake of good. The Olympic-based national sides need these experiences before they can make it to the senior side.

But wish is wish. Reality is still hard to analyze as the AFC is pretty corrupt to the core. The lack of will is the biggest reason: in some countries of the Gulf nations, football there is very protectionist, where moving abroad seems not on the agenda. And there go politics: tensions in various nations made the implementation impossible. Not to say there is a growing fear of nationalism, terrorism and unequal development, for instance the case of Afghanistan, North Korea or Palestine. Meanwhile, the losses of member nations like Israel and Kazakhstan remain a crisis to be addressed.

To be fair, I can expect, and potentially, a future that Asian football will truly appreciate the needs of reforms and improvement. I also believe that one day, Israel and Kazakhstan will leave the UEFA to rejoin the AFC, given how inferior they're in European stage. But if the AFC fails to change, it'll only go backward. Sadly, with the current staff, we can't expect AFC to improve.