Asian Champions’ Cup.
The formula was as follows – the preliminary round went rather complicated group round-robin tournaments hosted by one country each. Group 2, played in Bahrain, doubled the Gulf Cooperation Council Club Tournament and one team actually had no right to play in the Champions’ Cup, so its results mattered only for GCCCT, but… on them also depended who will qualify in the next round of the Champions’ Cup. After the preliminary qualification groups the semifinals followed in the same fashion: 11 teams were divided into 2 groups, played in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Group A, and Group B in Jakarta, Indonesia. The group winners qualified to the final, played in the usual two legs, home and away. Three teams withdrew (Al Deffatain – Amman, Al Muharraq – Bahrain, and Al Arabi – Kuwait) – the reasons, as usual, were political. Nissan FC (Japan) won the reduced Group A and Liaoning (China) – Group B, and went to the final. Interestingly, both teams played against each other already, both qualifying from the preliminary Group 5. Liaoning won the group back then, but the Japanese scored 11 goals in 3 games, permitting only 1 in their net – it was the winning goal Liaoning against Nissan, making them group winners. The final was really between equal opponents and once again 1 goal was the crucial difference: Liaoning won the first leg at home 2-1 and then kept 1-1 tie at Yokohama.
Liaoning triumphed and celebrated their victory in Communist style. Kind of.
Nissan FC – or Nissan Motors (Yokohama) reached the final for the first time and lost minimally. Sad, but not that bad at all. Japanese football was already going into full professionalism, there were foreign players, and the whole structure was going into massive reorganization – which included changes of names and new league, the J-League. Very soon after playing the Asian final Nissan FC would be no more – at least under that name. From the perspective of the professional reorganization of Japanese football, the relative success of Nissan FC was just a sign confirming the need of such a change: it was clearly the right time to move up a step.
Liaoning brought the first club success for Chinese football, confirming its improvement, which was mostly organizational. Since China was lagging behind South Korea and Japan, the success was mostly a boost, showing the right direction. As a club, Liaoning already had experience – they played at the Champions’ Cup final in 1986-87, when it was a group round-robin format and finished 3rd among the four finalists. This time they were winners, becoming in a way a motor for the Chinese organization of professional football and establishing themselves as a leading club. Historic victory not just for the club, but for the whole Chinese football.