July 08, 2007	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 22, 1428

BANGKOK, July 7: Asian football officials want European clubs banned from visiting the region during future Asian Cups to ensure their presence does not detract from the tournament.

A row broke out in the lead up to this year’s Asian Cup, which is being held in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam from July 7-29, after Malaysia invited Manchester United to play an exhibition match two days before the final.

Manchester United agreed to call off the match after complaints from the AFC, although they will proceed with other tour games in South Korea, Japan and Macau.

South Korea are also hosting the Peace Cup at the same time as the Asian Cup, prompting the AFC officials to consider placing a ban on any visits to Asia during the next tournament, to be played in 2011.“We need to do this to protect the worth of our competition,” AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam told a news conference on Friday.

The AFC are due to announce the 2011 host on July 29, the same day as this year’s final, with Qatar likely to get the nod after it was the only country to submit a formal bid.

Hammam said the bidding process could be reopened if the AFC did not think Qatar’s bid was up to scratch but he was confident it would be passed. —Reuters