JEONJU, South Korea, Nov 3, (AFP): Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors and Al Sadd will look to end a turbulent year for Asian football on a high as they battle for the region’s club crown on Saturday.
After a corruption-tainted year, Jeonbuk take on the Qatari visitors in the AFC Champions League final with their fans hoping a third consecutive South Korean victory will help banish a shameful period for the country.
The K-League has been rocked by a major match-fixing scandal — heightened by the suicides of a player and a coach under investigation — and a Jeonbuk win would help restore some gloss to the league’s tarnished image.
Al Sadd enter the final under a cloud of their own, after a mass brawl in the first leg of their semi-final against South Korea’s Suwon Bluewings shocked football fans.
And it’s been a difficult period for regional soccer after Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Mohamed bin Hammam was banned from the sport over bribery accusations.
Key Al Sadd forwards Mamadou Niang and Keita Abdul Kader will be eligible for the final after escaping further bans over the punch-up, which saw the Oct 19 game temporarily halted as players and coaches traded blows.

The pair served one-match suspensions in the second leg against Suwon, which Al Sadd lost 0-1 but still scraped into the final 2-1 on aggregate.
On Tuesday the AFC banned Suwon player Stevica Ristic and coach Ko Jung-So, and Al Sadd’s goalkeeping coach Suhail Saber Ali, for six games for their roles in the scrap.
And Al Sadd, whose passage to the semis was eased when their quarter-final opponents were penalised for fielding an ineligible player, will have their work cut out against free-scoring Jeonbuk.
The 2006 champions, are playing at home as they bid to keep Asia’s top club title in South Korean hands for the third year running following wins for Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma and Pohang Steelers.
Fresh from clinching the K-League regular season title, Jeonbuk may be boosted at Jeonju World Cup Stadium by the return from injury of former Middlesbrough marksman Lee Dong-Gook, the tournament’s top-scorer with nine goals.
“Lee has been receiving treatment and will start training next week, and if he does so then it will be possible for him to play,” Jeonbuk coach Choi Kang-Hee said last week of the 32-year-old striker.
“We will check his progress and then make the decision,” added Choi, who won the ACL with Jeonbuk in 2006.

But Jeonbuk will be without captain Cho Sung-Hwan and super-sub striker Lovrek Kruno, who will both miss the final after picking up cards in their second-leg tie against Saudi side Al Ittihad.
The 29-year-old Cho was given a yellow, his second of the knock-out rounds, while Kruno was sent off late on.
“I was telling myself that I had to take care and not get one more yellow card but it was an unavoidable situation,” Cho told Korean media, referring to his booking just 12 minutes into the clash at Jeonju World Cup Stadium.
“It is really sad that I cannot play in the final but there are so many good players in our team, I’m not worried about the match.” Jeonbuk went through with a 2-1 victory over Al Ittihad in the second leg, to make it a 5-3 aggregate win.
After Asian football’s torrid year, AFC bosses will hope the showpiece final can bolster the continent’s footballing reputation. The K-League graft revelations resulted in 57 people being charged and life bans for dozens of current and former players. The episode took a darker turn with the suicides of a former coach of South Korea’s military football club and a 29-year-old midfielder, apparently related to their involvement in the scandal.

Jeonbuk and Al Sadd factfile
Club name: Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors
Coach: Choi Kang-Hee
Established: 1994
Ground: Jeonju World Cup Stadium, capacity 43,000
Domestic Honours:
League – 1 win
Cup – 3 wins
Continental Record
AFC Champions League winners 2006
Club name: Al Sadd
Coach: Jorge Fossati
Established: 1969
Ground: Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, capacity 15,000
Domestic Honours:
League – 12 wins
Cup – 12 wins
Continental Record:
Asian champions 1989