AFC’s Unilateral Decision Making Still a Concern Despite Positive Reforms says FIFPRO
Lachlan Avil 
Takuya Yamazaki, Chair of FIFPRO Asia/Oceania. Photo: Provided by PFA
Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) and the Asia/Oceanic arm of FIFPRO have reiterated their calls for increased cooperation between the AFC and its players, as changes to the financial distributions for Asia’s club competitions are revealed.
A review published in February by FIFPRO Asia/Oceania highlighted the strain that specifically the Asian Champions League was placing on participating clubs, both financially and otherwise.
One of those concerns has been somewhat alleviated last week, with the AFC announcing improvements to their financial contributions structure for the new era of continental club competition, in the Asian Champions League Elite (ACLE).
Takuya Yamazaki, Chair of FIFPRO Asia/Oceania says that whilst these changes are positive, the AFC’s lack of collaboration around the moves is still of concern, calling for a genuine partnership between professional footballers, clubs, leagues, and the AFC.
“Whilst appearing to be a step in the right direction, the financial distributions announced by the AFC were decided unilaterally and, as such, require further analysis to determine whether they will adequately address the challenges identified by players,” he said.
Previously only paid to teams who make the knockout stages, a participation fee of $800k USD will be granted to all clubs who qualify for the league stage of the competition – formerly known as the group stage.
Performance bonuses, granted to the winner in normal time of each game have increased from $50k to $100k USD, but is now restricted to only the league phase. This move is compensated for by increased participation fees throughout the knockout stages.
The heavily criticised travel subsidies, which are flat fees that fail to consider the distance of a team’s actual travel, have been removed from the league stage onwards. Now, it will only apply to the preliminary (ie. qualifying) phase.
Finally, the purse for the finalists of the competition have seen significant increases. The runners up prize has doubled to $4 million USD, whilst the winners of the ACLE will pocket a cool $10 million USD and an invitation to the financially lucrative FIFA Club World Cup.
Kathryn Gill, Co-Chief Executive of the PFA and a board member of FIFPRO Asia/Oceania, also doubled down on calls for increased collaboration.
“The FIFPRO Asia/Oceania’s Report on the Asian Champions League identified that the competition has not been delivering value for the majority of its players and clubs. For both groups, the costs of participating have generally outweighed the benefits,” she said.
“To what extent these reforms will address the previous concerns of clubs, players, and fans remains to be seen.
“However, we know collaboration remains necessary to ensure that all those who participate in and are affected by the AFC competitions have a voice at the table.”
Other fundamental issues outlined in February’s report; including player workload, travel, league disruption and workplace standards remain unresolved.