Great Video with All Football National Teams of Asia.

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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmEXP5k2FGc

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Blog: https://clubesmundofutbol.blogspot.com/2021/07/asian-cup-todas-las-selecciones-de-asia.html

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https://preview.redd.it/90f34s32teb71.jpg?width=1150&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e540e1ccaa7df0977c795666fcf95a414fa0f9e2

With the AFC Cup being cancelled, there are no AFC country coefficients being calculated for 2020. I wanted to see the points that would have been earned from ACL 2020 East.

AFC coefficients are calculated as a total over 4 years. The "2017-2020" total would be the "new" rankings. The change from the "old" ranking (2016-2019) can be as much down to 2016 dropping out of the total.

For 2020 I had to just ignore 🇲🇾 Malaysia due to JDT dropping out. JDT's withdrawal and having single-leg knockouts means there were less points on offer in total (you usually get points for a win/draw in each leg). I guess things were a little unfair in the groups, with some teams playing an away leg but never getting home advantage on a return fixture.

I found it weird that 🇯🇵 Kashima losing in the play-offs and so not making the group stage incurred essentially no penalty on Japan's coefficient - the year's points are an average of the teams that make the groups, so Japan's accumulated points were divided by 3, not by 4.

This also explains why 🇹🇭 Thailand and 🇦🇺 Australia have similar points for 2020 despite Australia having 3 teams in the groups (and 1 in the RO16) to Thailand's 1 team - average points in the 2020 group stage counts most for these nations. Only by reaching the knockouts en masse and/or with deep runs can you really make bank though, as you get bonus points for reaching each subsequent round.

Just out of curiousity, I calculated the points for each country from ACL 2020 using UEFA's method (which I'm sure has its own flaws) for comparison. UEFA's method gives a big bonus for being in the groups and also reaching the RO16, so we see 🇦🇺 Australia well clear of 🇹🇭 Thailand for 2020.

Before you celebrate or sink into misery about your favourite league's relative standing, remember that nearly every team had something to overcome to various degrees - injuries, COVID-induced absence, a surprising number of teenagers. And to end on a cynical note, it may be a coincidence that the better-funded teams tend to do better… but it's probably not.

🇨🇳China is China (although a salary cap is on the horizon), and 🇯🇵 Vissel Kobe have a player that according to some sources is the 7th-highest-paid player in the world. To put into perspective how bonkers that one salary is, it's a shade more than the combined wages (151 players) of the 4 highest-paying 🇰🇷 K League clubs for the 2019 season.

China is also still running their naturalisation program which skirts the 3+1 rule...

No doubt there are also some who look at the resources of the 🇹🇭 Thai League with envy - there's always a bigger fish. Thankfully there's always going to be dimishing returns on financial investment. Also, this is football, so there's always a chance for an upset.

Does which country have more points matter? No, not really. But a little bit yes. Here's the allocation for the 2021 (and 2022?) ACL, for spots directly into the group stage and play-off spots. In 2021 the ACL will expand from 4 to 5 groups of 4 teams in both East and West.

https://www.reddit.com/r/worldcup_2022/comments/egsm9u/former_south_korea_boss_shin_taeyong_named/