Date:21/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/21/stories/2008052160342100.htm

Sport - Football

India cleared provisionally

Kuala Lumpur: India, along with 10 other countries, was on Tuesday provisionally cleared to participate in next year’s AFC Champions League football, which will be re-launched on completely professional lines.

Signalling a new dawn for professionalism in Asian football, the AFC Pro-League ad hoc Committee recommended to the Executive Committee the first list of 11 countries for the new AFC Champions League next year.

Apart from India, Japan, Korea Republic, Australia, China, Indonesia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE and Iran made the cut after a thorough assessment of their eligibility.

The committee employed four grades — ‘A’ (meet all criteria), ‘B’ (assured to meet criteria by October 1, 2008), ‘C’ (not assured to meet criteria by October 1, 2008) and ‘D’ (do not meet the criteria). Japan met all the criteria and bagged a straight ‘A’ in all the fields and India is among the 10 member countries, which the committee is confident would meet the criteria by October 1. However, if India fails to meet all criteria by October 1, it cannot participate in the new AFC Champions League. A final decision on the issue would be taken by the committee in its November 25 meeting. — PTI