| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | ?? 1996 – March 1997 |
| Teams | 26 |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  Pohang Steelers (1st title) |
| Runners-up | Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma |
| Third place |  Persepolis |
| Fourth place |  Al-Zawraa |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 51 |
| Goals scored | 155 (3.04 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | Park Tae-Ha |
| Best player(s) | An Ik-Soo |
| Fair play award | Al-Zawraa |
← 1995 1997–98 → | |
The 1996–97 Asian Club Championship 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 footballinAsia.
Pohang SteelersofSouth 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.
| 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 Al-Sharjah withdrew.
| 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 (4–2p) |  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.
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Al-Rayyan | 2–1 | Al-Nassr |
|---|---|---|
Zamel Essa  55' Mohammed Salem Al-Enazi 62' |
Majed Abdullah 72' |
| Persepolis | 2–1 | Al-Zawraa |
|---|---|---|
| Reza Shahroudi 39' Edmond Bezik 75' |
Abbas 71' |
| Al-Nassr | 3–2 | Persepolis |
|---|---|---|
| Ohene Kennedy 70' 87' 89' |
Edmond Bezik 62' Khodadad Azizi 75' |
Referee: Saad Kamil Al-Fadhli (Kuwait)
| Al-Zawraa | 2–0 | Al-Rayyan |
|---|---|---|
| Attiya 40' Mahdi 55' |
| Al-Rayyan | 1–2 | Persepolis |
|---|---|---|
| Mohamed Mutlaq 65' |
Khodadad Azizi 44' 89' |
| Al-Nassr | 0–0 | Al-Zawraa |
|---|---|---|
Referee: Russamee Jindamai (Thailand)
| 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 |
| Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma | 9–0 | New Radiant |
|---|---|---|
| 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' |
| Pohang Steelers | 2–2 | Yokohama Marinos |
|---|---|---|
| Lee Young-Sang 48' Rade Bogdanović 75' |
Alberto Acosta 32' Fumitake Miura 39' |
| New Radiant | 0–6 | Pohang Steelers |
|---|---|---|
| Cho Jin-Ho 32' 49' (pen.) 83' 89' Serhiy Konovalov 34' 61' |
| Yokohama Marinos | 2–3 | Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma |
|---|---|---|
| Alberto Acosta 34' Satoru Noda 57' |
Lee Sang-Yoon 14' 51' Hwang Yeon-Seok 60' |
| Yokohama Marinos | 10–0 | New Radiant |
|---|---|---|
| Masaharu Suzuki 4' Alberto Acosta 12' 28' 38' 57' 89' Yoshito Terakawa 13' 35' Yoshiharu Ueno 40' Tomokazu Hirama 75' |
| Pohang Steelers | 0–0 | Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma |
|---|---|---|
| Persepolis | 1–3 | Pohang Steelers |
|---|---|---|
| Khodadad Azizi 88' |
Park Tae-Ha 9' 86' Yahya Golmohammadi 55' (o.g.) |
| Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma | 1–0 | Al-Zawraa |
|---|---|---|
| Kim Chang-Won 42' |
| Persepolis | 4–1 | Al-Zawraa |
|---|---|---|
| Edmond Bezik 20' Mehdi Mahdavikia 30' Karim Bagheri 65' 80' |
Fawzi 8' |
| Pohang Steelers | 2–1 (a.e.t.) | Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma |
|---|---|---|
| Park Tae-Ha 78' Park Ji-Ho  117' (pen.) |
Hong Jong-Kyoung 79' |
| 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
|
|
| |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
« 1996 1998 » | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
