Venues decided for Asian Champions League group phase
Agence France Presse
December 11The group stages of the AFC Champions League, Asian football's richest tournament, will take place in Thailand, China, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan, it was announced here Wednesday.
Four groups of four teams, involving sides from Japan, South Korea, China, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Qatar, Uzbekistan and the UAE, will contest the quarter-final rounds.
The groups will be based in Bangkok, Dalian, Al Ain in Abu Dhabi and Tashkent.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) gave the right to stage the groups to Thailand league champions BEC Tero Sasana, China's Dalian Shide, the Bruno Metsu-coached Al Ain and Uzbekistan giants Pakhtakor.
The top side from each group will go forward to the home and away semi-finals in April with the two-leg shootout for the 500,000-dollar first prize being staged in May.
The group stage line-up was confirmed after a 56-match odyssey over four months which saw eight sides join the eight seeded teams.
The AFC Champions League, which was launched in August, replaces the Asian Club Championship, the Asian Cup Winners Cup and the Asian Super Cup.