The intensity of work is loose and there are no entertainment including alcohol and gambling. Because it is too hot in the middle of the day, it is common for people to get up late and walk around at night. The stands are a rare place where residents of the city can burst their energy. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was a place where foreigners could not access except for the road to Mecca, the holy site of Islam, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia. Here, the first final stage of the AFC Champions League Elite (ACLE) was held.스포츠토토

With the launch of the 2024-2025 ACLE, AFC has taken a similar direction to that of Europe. It has the same direction as UEFA in two aspects. By expanding the types of competitions, AFC has created an international competition that allows players to participate in less competitive leagues. At the top-tier competition, the introduction of the league stage expanded the number of face-to-face confrontations between strong teams. A total of 24 teams participated in the ACLE this season, which hosted separate league stages in East and West Asia, to determine the round of 16 best teams first. The team played only the round of 16 best in a home-and-away manner with teams close to each other.

The final stage is the final stage to win and is an event organized by AFC with the idea of creating a festival. Unlike the previous tournament, which went up to the final in a home-and-away manner, the quarterfinals will all gather in one city to determine the winner with a short-term tournament. The first team to win the tournament after the reorganization was Al-Ahli. It beat Yokohama Marinos (Japan) in the quarterfinals and Saudi rival Al-Hilal in the semifinals to reach the final. It won the final match on the 4th (Korea time) by beating Kawasaki Frontale (Japan) 2-0.

▲ The Most Gorgeous Players, The Most Gorgeous Show

This year's event looked the most splendid among ACLE players, and attracted the most worldwide attention beyond Asia. The first factor was, of course, the reputation of players participating. Cristiano Ronaldo, the most famous player in the AFC Championship, as well as Marcello Brozovic, John Duran and Emrik Laport, played for Alnasr. Alhilal had Aleksandar Mitrovic, João Cancelo, and Kalidou Koulibaly. Al-Ahli, who beat them and won the championship, were also notable for their performances including Roberto Firmino, the MVP of the championship, Ibanese, Frank Kesier, Riyad Mahrez, and Edouard Mendy.

AFC has significantly reorganized the venue to meet its goal of "growing the competition to match the level of national competition." Major sponsors of the competition have increased from six to 11 this year. The money has been reinvested in the operation and grooming of the competition. The prize money has exploded, and the total prize money amounts to 10 million U.S. dollars. As Gwangju coach Lee Jung-hyo said, "If we win, we will build a new clubhouse." While the tournament format is to hold the quarterfinals in one place alone, it takes a lot of money and balls, and the splendor of the games has been different from the past. DJ Jas, who is familiar with various soccer finals, appeared in every quarterfinal, arousing audience's excitement. Special effects such as lighting shows, fireworks, and large-scale concerts were followed. In addition, the finals mobilized all means to have spectacular games, including laser shows before games, bands performing after games, and drone shows after award ceremonies.

▲ box office from Malaysia to Saudi Arabia

If the tournament is held in one place starting from the quarterfinals, the concentration of the tournament and short-term fun will be maximized. Instead, it is not a home stadium for each team, but a neutral stadium, which makes it difficult to make a box office. This was something AFC has been agonizing over for a long time. The reason why ACL finals were often conducted in a home-and-away manner was because of the problem of the success of neutral stadiums. There were a few times when they played at either home or the other by setting their own rules, but fairness was too poor.

Despite nominally hosting the games from the quarterfinals in a neutral zone, it was a huge success from the standpoint of spectators. Two of the seven games effectively drew more than 50,000 spectators, effectively filling the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium. The two games attracted 40,000 spectators. The biggest box office failure was the quarterfinal match between Kawasaki Frontale and Qatar's Al-Sad, which only drew about 2,800 spectators.

Among them, the semifinal match between Al-Hilal and Al-Ahli was the highlight of this competition. It was a match between Al-Ahli, who originally used the stadium as his home, and Al-Hilal, who flew from Riyadh. The entire stadium was divided in half without neutral seats, and what stood out was the arrangement of the stands. In the middle of the E-seat, there were only two supporters' seats, each with about 25,000 people dividing the north and south sides in half. The cheering match between the excited spectators was so massive that the ground shook from a distance. It is very rare for a neutral stadium to be so full. Moreover, Saudi soccer fans showed aggressive cheering. And it was European superstars such as Roberto Firmino and Ivan Toney who scored on the grass. Saudi Arabia's Salem al-Dosari and Firas al-Buraikan scored on top of the warm-up match, proving that they did not fall into a "mercenary party." The heat, process and results were all the hottest.

The success of ACLE this season is evidenced by the overall figures of the tournament as well as the Final Stage. The average attendance through the first six rounds of the league stage was 11,966. This is a 17% increase from the average attendance of 10,194 through the first six rounds of the 2023-2024 group stage.

This is because strong teams representing each country in Southeast Asia also contributed to the success of the league stage. Until the sixth round, Johordarultakjim (Malaysia) had the largest average attendance of about 32,000. In terms of spectators by game, the Alnasr home game with about 37,000 people ranked first, and Johor's home game against Ulsan HD was second with about 34,000 people. An AFC official said, "The atmosphere of Johor home games is world-class beyond Asia."