Controversial rule hurts soccer award

Arsenal hosts Borussia Dortmund in a UEFA Champions League game that could pit South Korea captain Park Chu-young against Japanese star Shinji Kagawa on Wednesday but which prevents either of them being named as the 2011 Asian Player of the Year.

It is a cause of controversy every November because the Asian Football Confederation decrees that only players who attend the ceremony in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia are eligible to receive the continent’s major individual football prize.

Since the rule came into operation in 2005, Asia’s biggest names ― including Park Ji-sung of Manchester United and Keisuke Honda at CSKA Moscow ― have had little chance of being honored due to club commitments during what is always a busy time in the European season.

Park Ji-sung moved to Europe in 2002 and has become arguably the most successful Asian player in history. The South Korean forward has won four English Premier League titles, two Dutch championships and the Club World Cup title. He is the only Asian to appear in the final of the UEFA Champions League and the first to score at three consecutive World Cups.

Despite such a record, Park has never been named as the Asian Player of the Year. The 2010 recipient of the prize, Sasa Ognenovski, believes that the AFC should at least reconsider when it holds the ceremony to enable more players to attend.

“I think the rule that players must attend does diminish the award a little,” the Australian defender, who plays for South Korea’s Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma, told the Associated Press.

“The timing of it is an issue,” Ognenovski added. “They should consider the boys in Europe, the ones in Asia are usually available to attend. Perhaps if it was held in December then it would be easier for many to make it, then only the English Premier League-based players would have a problem.”

Of the six players named on the shortlist for 2011, only two look likely to travel to the Malaysian capital for Wednesday’s awards ― Iranian defender Hadi Aghily and Uzbekistan’s Server Djeparov, who recently transferred from FC Seoul to Saudi Arabia’s Al Shabab.

Kagawa as well as Keisuke Honda and Koo Ja-cheol of VfL Wolfsburg have European commitments.
 
(AP)