1996–97 Asian Club Championship

Pohang Steelers of South Korea won the final and became Asian champions for the first time after beating Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma in the first ever Asian top club tournament that ended in a one-country final.

First round

West Asia

Team 1	Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score	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	0–0	0–1
Kazma	10–1	Dhofar	9–0	1–1
West Riffa	2-4	Nejmeh	2–1	0–3
Al-Nassr	w/o1	Al-Sharjah
Al-Rayyan	bye
Al-Zawraa	bye

¹

East Asia

Team 1	Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score	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 F.C.	0–1	1–1( a.e.t. )
JCT FC	2–2 (4–2 p )	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. Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Al-Zawraa	3–1	FK Neftchy Farg'ona	1–0	2–1
Yelimay Semipalatinsk	3–5	Persepolis	3–0	0–5
Nejmeh	1–4	Al-Nassr	1–0	0–4
Al-Kazma	1–2	Al-Rayyan	0–1	1–1

East Asia

Team 1	Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma	1–0	Shanghai Shenhua	0–0	1–0
Yokohama Marinos	3–1	Johor F.C.	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	3	2	0	1	6	5	+1	6
Al-Zawraa	3	1	1	1	3	2	+1	4
Al-Nassr	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
Al-Rayyan	3	1	0	2	3	5	−2	3

8 November 1996

Al-Rayyan	2–1	Al-Nassr
Zamel Essa 55' Mohammed Salem Al-Enazi 62'		Majed Abdullah 72'

Doha, Qatar

8 November 1996

Al-Zawraa
Reza Shahroudi 39' Edmond Bezik 75'		Abbas 71'

Doha, Qatar

10 November 1996

Persepolis
Ohene Kennedy 70' 87' 89'		Edmond Bezik 62' Khodadad Azizi 75'

Khalifa International Stadium, Doha Qatar

Referee: Saad Kamil Al-Fadhli (Kuwait)

10 November 1996

Al-Rayyan
Attiya 40' Mahdi 55'

Doha, Qatar

12 November 1996

Persepolis
Mohamed Mutlaq 65'		Khodadad Azizi 44' 89'

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

24 November 1996

New Radiant
Gennadi Stepouchkine 69' Alex Agbo 89'

Daegu, South Korea

24 November 1996

Yokohama Marinos
Lee Young-Sang 48' Rade Bogdanović 75'		Alberto Acosta 32' Fumitake Miura 39'

Daegu, South Korea

26 November 1996

New Radiant	0–6	Pohang Steelers
		Cho Jin-Ho 32' 49' (pen.) 83' 89' Serhiy Konovalov 34' 61'

Daegu, South Korea

26 November 1996

Yokohama Marinos	2–3	Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma
Alberto Acosta 34' Satoru Noda 57'		Hwang Yeon-Seok 60'

Daegu, South Korea

28 November 1996

New Radiant
Masaharu Suzuki 4' Alberto Acosta 12' 28' 38' 57' 89' Yoshito Terakawa 13' 35' Yoshiharu Ueno 40' Tomokazu Hirama 75'

Daegu, South Korea

28 November 1996

Pohang Steelers	0–0	Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma

Daegu, South Korea

Semifinals

7 March 1997

Persepolis	1–3	Pohang Steelers
Khodadad Azizi 88'		Park Tae-Ha 9' 86' Yahya Golmohammadi 55' (o.g. )

Shah Alam Stadium, Shah Alam, Malaysia

7 March 1997

Al-Zawraa
Kim Chang-Won 42'

Shah Alam Stadium, Shah Alam, Malaysia

Third place match

9 March 1997

Al-Zawraa
Edmond Bezik 20' Mehdi Mahdavikia 30' Karim Bagheri 65' 80'		Fawzi 8'

Shah Alam Stadium, Shah Alam, Malaysia

Final

^[1]

9 March 1997

a.e.t.)	Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma
Park Ji-Ho  117'  (pen. )		Hong Jong-Kyoung 79'

Shah Alam Stadium, Shah Alam, Malaysia

Referee: Nik Ahmad (Malaysia)

Awards

Award[2]	Player	Team
Sanyo Most Valuable Player	An Ik-Soo	Pohang Steelers
Coca-Cola Best Defender	An Ik-Soo	Pohang Steelers
Diadora Top Goalscorer	Park Tae-Ha	Pohang Steelers
Snickers Fair Play Award	—	Al-Zawraa

References

• Asian Club Competitions 1997 at RSSSF.com