Unfair AFC Player of the Year Award Nominees

The selection of three unqualified Asian football players as the final three candidates of the AFC Asian Player of the Year Award is a disappointment and, quite frankly, a slap in the face of those deserved players who displayed the pinnacle of Asian football to the world.

By ruling out the players most deserving of the award based on the excuse that they will not be able to attend the ceremonies is a disservice to Asian football fans all over the world. These players who have made great strides in representing Asian football in the highest level of club football in Europe deserve better.

The award should be presented to the real stars of Asian football within the past year, such as Manchester United's Park Ji-Sung, Lee Young-pyo of Spurs, Bolton's Hidetoshi Nakata, Celtic star Shunsuke Nakamura and Bayern Munich's Ali Karimi. It is these players who are most deserving of the award, and they have proved their worth game in and game out in the Europes most demanding leagues.

To present the award to three good, but unspectacular players - Sami Al Jaber, Hamad Al Montashari and Maksim Shatskikh is tantamount to ruining Asian footballs reputation and credibility, and will discourage future Asian stars. It will set a precedence that real form and amazing football skill are not as highly valued as the political favoritisms of the day. As such, the Asian Player of the Year Award will lose all credibility in the hearts and minds of Asians all over the world.

We, the undersigned, ask the AFC to reconsider this disastrous decision and to let fairness and sensibility be the main force in this and future AFC decisions.