(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-02-13 14:49

Hammam has been critical of some of those tours in the past, describing them as immoral and blindly commercial.

Manchester United headed off a major dispute with the AFC when it withdrew from a planned match in Malaysia last July at a time when it would have clashed with the Asian Cup, the AFC's flagship tournament.

Football Federation Australia, which joined the Asian confederation from Oceania last year, on Wednesday released a statement rejecting the Premier League proposal.

"The bottom line is, FFA rejects the notion of another country playing a round of their domestic competition in Australia and intruding on the development of the A-League and the game in Australia," FFA chairman Frank Lowy said.

FFA chief executive Ben Buckley said local administrators did not oppose exhibition games involving A-League clubs with international club sides.

"However, our overriding objective is to build equity in the A-League and everything we do is assessed against that objective," he said.

Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President Mohamed Bin Hammam (R) and Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al-Thani (L), president of Qatar's soccer federation, and FIFA President Sepp Blatter attend a news conference at the Aspire sports complex in Doha February 11, 2008.  [Agencies]

 

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