1996–97 Asian Club Championship

The Asian Club Championship 1996-97 was the 16th edition of the annual international club football competition held in the AFC region (Asia). It determined that year's club champion of association football in Asia.

Pohang Steelers of South Korea won the final and became Asian champions for the first time.

First round

West Asia

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
FK Neftchy Farg'ona	8-2	Pamir Dushanbe	4-1	4-1
AiK Bishkek	3-6	Yelimay Semipalatinsk	2-4	1-2
Köpetdag Aşgabat	0-1	Persepolis FC	0-0	0-1
Al-Kazma	10-1	Dhofar	9-0	1-1
West Riffa	w/o3	Al-Nejmeh	2-1	0-3
Al-Nasr	w/o4	Al-Sharjah
Al-Rayyan	bye
Al-Zawraa	bye

¹ West Riffa withdrew.
² Al-Sharjah withdrew.

East Asia

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Shanghai Shenhua	9-2	Instant-Dict FC	7-1	2-1
Công an Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh	1-2	Johor FC	0-1	1-1(aet)
JCT FC	2-2(4-2p)	New Road Team	1-1	1-1
PSM Makassar	1-4	Pohang Steelers	1-0	0-4
New Radiant	1-0	Pettah United SC	1-0	n/p1
Yokohama Marinos	w/o2	GD Artilheiros
Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma	bye
Thai Farmers Bank FC	bye

¹ The 2nd leg was cancelled due to political violence in Sri Lanka.
² GD Artilheiros withdrew.

Second round

West Asia

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Al-Zawraa	3-1	FK Neftchy Farg'ona	1-0	2-1
Yelimay Semipalatinsk	3-5	Persepolis FC	3-0	0-5
Al-Nejmeh	1-4	Al-Nasr	1-0	0-4
Al-Kazma	1-2	Al-Rayyan	0-1	1-1

East Asia

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma	1-0	Shanghai Shenhua	0-0	1-0
Yokohama Marinos	3-1	Johor FC	2-0	1-1
JCT FC	1-2	New Radiant	1-0	0-2
Thai Farmers Bank FC	1-5	Pohang Steelers	1-3	0-2

Quarterfinals

West Asia

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Persepolis FC	3	2	0	1	6	5	+1	6
Al-Zawraa	3	1	1	1	3	2	+1	4
Al-Nasr	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
Al-Rayyan	3	1	0	2	3	5	−2	3

November 8, 1996	Al-Rayyan	2–1	Al-Nasr	Doha, Qatar
	Zamel Essa  55' Mohd Salem Al Enazi  62'		Majed Abdullah  72'

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November 8, 1996	Persepolis FC	2–1	Al-Zawraa	Doha, Qatar
	Reza Shahroudi  39' Edmond Bezik  75'		Sahib Hassan  71'

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November 10, 1996	Al-Nasr	3–2	Persepolis FC	Doha, Qatar
	Ohene Kennedy  70'  87'  89'		Edmond Bezik  62' Khodadad Azizi  75'

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November 10, 1996	Al-Zawraa	2–0	Al-Rayyan	Doha, Qatar
	Moayad Attlya  40' Mohamed Medhi  55'

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November 12, 1996	Al-Rayyan	1–2	Persepolis FC	Doha, Qatar
	Mohamed Mutlaq  65'		Khodadad Azizi  44'  89'

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November 12, 1996	Al-Nasr	0–0	Al-Zawraa	Doha, Qatar

East Asia

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma	3	2	1	0	12	2	+10	7
Pohang Steelers	3	1	2	0	8	2	+6	5
Yokohama Marinos	3	1	1	1	14	5	+9	4
New Radiant	3	0	0	3	0	25	−25	0

November 24, 1996	Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma	9–0	New Radiant	Daegu, South Korea
	Lee Sang-Yoon  15' Kim Dong-Gun  37'  59' Hwang Yeon-Seok  44' Lee Ki-Beom  51' Han Jung-Guk  68'  73' Gennadi Stepouchkine  69' Alex Agbo  89'

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November 24, 1996	Pohang Steelers	2–2	Yokohama Marinos	Daegu, South Korea
	Lee Young-Sang  48' Rade Bogdanovic  75'		Alberto Acosta  32' Tunitake Miura  39'

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November 26, 1996	New Radiant	0–6	Pohang Steelers	Daegu, South Korea
			Cho Jin-Ho  32'  49'(p)  83'  89' Serhiy Konovalov  34'  61'

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November 26, 1996	Yokohama Marinos	2–3	Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma	Daegu, South Korea
	Alberto Acosta  34' Satoru Noda  57'		Lee Sang-Yoon  14'  51' Hwang Yeon-Seok  60'

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November 28, 1996	Yokohama Marinos	10–0	New Radiant	Daegu, South Korea
	M. Suzuki  4' Alberto Acosta  12' 28' 38' 57' 89' Yoshito Terakawa  13'  35' Y. Uena  40' T. Hirama  75'

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November 28, 1996	Pohang Steelers	0–0	Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma	Daegu, South Korea

Semifinals

March 7, 1997	Persepolis	1–3	Pohang Steelers	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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March 7, 1997	Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma	1–0	Al-Zawraa	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Third place match

March 9, 1997	Persepolis FC	4–1	Al-Zawraa	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Final

March 9, 1997	Pohang Steelers	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Referee: Nik Ahmad
	Park Tae-Ha  78' Park Ji-Ho  117'  (pen.)		Hong Jong-Kyung  79'

Champions

Asian Club Championship 1996-97 Pohang Steelers First Title

References

• Asian Club Competitions 1997 at RSSSF.com