Learner Podcast 14 – AFC Champions League

Damian and Damon look at the AFC Champions League in this week's free football show for learners of English. Try out our worksheets or online quiz to help you practice your listening and vocabulary skills. If you click on the audio when it is playing on an iPod you can see the transcript as you listen. Ita€™s a great way to practice listening and fluency! Transcript This year an Iranian side, Sepahan, and a Japanese club, Urawa will contest the AFC Championa€™s League Final over two legs. The first leg in Iran ended a one-one draw, and Asian football is eagerly awaiting the return leg in Saitama, Japan next week. This competition run by the AFC, the Asian Football Confederation, only started five years ago in 2002, coincidentally the same year Asia hosted the World Cup for the first time in Japan and Korea. In this respect, it is much like the Champions League in Europe, which also is a relatively young competition, with only a 15 year history. While expanding cup competitions to include more clubs from the same countries certainly seems to bring in more money, many argue that it devalues the title a€˜Champions Cupa€™ as it isna€™t really only the champions that take part. The AFCa€™s Champions league grew out of the old Asian Club Championship, which started life with only eight entrants. Think about the size of Asia and ita€™s easy to understand some of the difficulties involved in running a big competition. Also, back in 1967 when the cup started, football was not the big business, popular sport it is becoming now in Asia. The early years were dominated by Israel, but Iran also tasted success in 1970, 1990 and 1992, the last Iranian victory coming for Pas. Japan too has had a taste of club success in the competition with in 1986, 1987 and the 1988/89 season with Jubilo Iwata winning. In 1990, an Asian Cup Winners Cup was started and in 1995 the winners of the Asian Club Championship and the Cup Winners Cup met in the Asian Super Cup. The Super Cup in ita€™s short history was dominated by Korean and Japanese sides. But since 2002 the Champions of the 15 top federations in Asia and the winners of those domestic knockout cup competitions meet in the group stages of the present AFC Champions League. They are drawn from four regions. While deciding which countries are the top 15 in the continent may be complicated to decide, having the Champions and the cup winners represent their countries does sound slightly more legitimate than the European version of the Champions League which has countries like England and Spain having four clubs in the competition. Perhaps Europe should consider copying the Asian competitions format. And how about the second leg of this yeara€™s cup final? Well, Sepahan, currently second in the league in Iran, met japanese side Kawasaki Frontale in the quarters and won on penalties and seem much stronger at home than away. Certainly they are solid defensively, and they can score goals - Seyed Mohammad Salehi is currently second highest goal scorer in this competition with five goals. Urawa also got through on penalties in the semi finals against tough Korean opponents Seongnam Ilhwa. I suspect that home advantage will see them win Japana€™s first AFC Champions League Cup.