The backdrop was all there. A sellout crowd of 55, 847, most of them clad in the blood red of the home team. A world-wide television audience. Dario Conca, one of the highest paid players in the world, reportedly checking in at $12.5 million a year. Marcello Lippi, a legendary coach whose résumé includes winning both the UEFA Champions' League and the World Cup. Two clubs from China and South Korea: one country a massive economic juggernaut, the other an established soccer power at the international level, having qualified for every World Cup since 1986.
亚洲冠军联赛决赛第二回合的比赛是在这样的背景下拉开帷幕的：55,847名球迷令现场座无虚席，大多数球迷都身着主队的红色球衣；全球都有观众在通过电视观看比赛；当今球坛薪酬最高的足球运动员之一孔卡(Dario Conca)，据称他以每年1,250万美元加盟恒大；传奇教练里皮(Marcello Lippi)，曾带队赢得欧洲冠军杯和世界杯；决赛队伍分别来自中国和韩国——一个是经济大国，另一个国家则已经在国际足球上占有一席之地，自1986年以来每次都晋级世界杯。
It was the second leg of the 2013 Asian Champions League final. It finished 1-1, meaning China's Guangzhou Evergrande was crowned Asian champion on the away-goals rule since the away leg against South Korea's FC Seoul had ended 2-2.
这场比赛最终以1-1的比分收场，由于在第一回合的比赛中客场对阵首尔FC(FC Seoul)的比分为2-2，中国广州恒大队凭借客场进球优势赢得亚冠冠军。
The silver-haired 65-year-old Lippi-long considered a Paul Newman look-alike-was triumphantly lifted into the air by his players three times. In 18 months at the club he had delivered two Chinese league titles, the Chinese FA Cup and now he had helped Guangzhou become champion of Asia. In doing so, he became the first manager ever to win the major continental club competition of two different confederations. (His success in Europe's elite tournament had come with Juventus back in 1996.)
65岁的银发教练里皮一直被认为长得像保罗·纽曼(Paul Newman)。比赛结束后，他被球员三次抛向空中庆祝胜利。里皮在广州恒大执教18个月，已经带队夺得两次中超联赛冠军和一次中国足协杯冠军，如今又帮助广州恒大成为亚洲之冠。他也由此成为历史上首位在亚洲和欧洲都带队赢得俱乐部联赛冠军的教练。1996年里皮曾带领尤文图斯(Juventus)多的欧冠冠军。
'Except for Berlin, today is as great a day as any other I've enjoyed in my coaching career, ' he said, referring back to the venue of his 2006 World Cup triumph with Italy. 'Honestly this is equal to winning the [UEFA] Champions' League.'
里皮说，除了柏林之外，今天是我执教生涯中伟大的一天，与赢得欧洲冠军联赛时一样。他所说的柏林指的是2006年世界杯时他带领意大利国家队夺冠。
Many would suggest that it obviously isn't. And that Lippi was simply being gracious. The UEFA Champions' League includes the best teams from the best leagues in the world. It has an unparalleled global audience and is hugely attractive to sponsors and broadcasters, an appeal that shows no sign of abating. Indeed, on the day of the Asian Champions' League final it was announced that the British broadcaster BT Sport had paid a whopping $1.4 billion for the 2015 to 2018 U.K. rights, more than doubling the $640 million shelled out by the current rights holders.
很多人认为亚冠显然与欧冠不一样，并认为里皮只是在说场面话。欧冠囊括了全世界最优秀联赛中最好的球队。欧冠在全球的观众规模是无与伦比的，并且极大地吸引着赞助商和广播电视公司，这种吸引力丝毫没有褪色迹象。事实上，在亚冠联赛决赛当天就有消息说，英国体育频道BT Sport豪掷14亿美元获得2015年至2018年欧冠联赛在英国的转播权，比当前持有转播权的公司花费的6.40亿美元高出一倍以上。
But it does raise the question whether any continent-or, to use FIFA parlance, confederation-could ever produce a club competition to challenge the UEFA Champions' League.
但这也确实带来一个问题：会不会有哪个大洲（或用国际足联(FIFA)的说法，哪个联赛）有可能打造一个能与欧冠联赛媲美的俱乐部赛事？
On paper, for the foreseeable future, it could only be Asia. The Copa Libertadores in South America is of a very high standard, but for historical and geographical reasons is contested by just 10 nations-and Brazil supplies half the population.
理论上，在可预见的未来，只有亚洲有这种可能。南美洲的南美解放者杯(Copa Libertadores)联赛已经具有很高水准，但由于历史以及地缘政治原因，该联赛只有10个国家参与，其中半数球员来自巴西。
Concacaf is home to the U.S., Canada, Mexico and their tiny rivals in Central America and the Caribbean. Even if the general level did improve, the imbalance of power is such that it seems unrealistic that they could ever compete. Africa has the critical mass in terms of population and competitiveness but the gap in wealth with the other confederations is so vast that it won't be closed for generations. As for Oceania, it's tiny and noncompetitive.
中北美洲及加勒比海联赛冠军杯(Concacaf)包括了美国、加拿大、墨西哥以及中美洲和加勒比海的一些小国。即使这个联赛的整体水平能够上升，各国的实力也还是太过悬殊，与欧冠分庭抗礼似乎是不太可能的。非洲在人口和竞争性方面都达到了相应的条件，但财力与其他联赛的差距太大，再过几十年都无法赶上。至于大洋洲本身就很小，没有竞争性。
Size, obviously, isn't an issue for Asia. Nor is economic might, given that no fewer than seven G-20 nations are part of the Asian confederation. Crucially, in addition to larger economies, you have smaller ones like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, packed with the kind of uber-wealthy soccer-loving men who have driven soccer success elsewhere. Throw in strong, mature economies like South Korea, Japan and Australia (which, in the soccer universe, is part of Asia) plus the potential of giant, soccer-crazed countries like Iran and China and you're halfway there.
很显然，对于亚洲来讲“规模”不成问题。 且不说经济多么庞大，单看二十国集团(G-20)亚洲占据了七个名额之多就可以想见了。而且关键是，除了那些较大经济体之外，卡塔尔、阿联酋等小国家有着一大批富得流油的狂热球迷，他们曾经推动过足球在世界其他地方的成功。亚洲这片土壤上不仅有韩国、日本、澳大利亚（在足球世界里姑且算作亚洲国家）等发达经济体，也不乏伊朗、中国这样的潜力巨大同时痴迷于足球的国家。
It should only be a question of laying the groundwork and waiting for the quality of the product to rise, right?
那么，现在只需翻松土壤，等待播下的种子开花结果就行了，是这样吗？
Not quite.
不要太想当然。
For a start, there's the issue of competitive imbalance. There are 47 countries in the AFC, but only 10 actually compete in the AFC Champions' League and, of the 32 teams involved, 20 come from just five nations: Qatar, Japan, South Korea, China and Saudi Arabia. Unlike UEFA, which has preliminary rounds to ensure that clubs from every member nation have at least a shot at qualification, the Asian version is more of a closed shop. There is a ranking system in place, but in practice the criteria go beyond soccer ability to include factors such as stadiums and marketability.
首先，存在着一个竞争不平等的问题。亚洲足球联合会(AFC)共有47个成员国，但实际上仅有10个国家可以参加冠军杯(Champions' League)的角逐；另外，在32支参赛队伍中，有20支来自以下五个国家：卡塔尔、日本、韩国、中国和沙特阿拉伯。和欧冠所不同的是，亚冠更像是少数成员才可入内的私人会所，而前者通过举行预选赛来确保每个成员国的俱乐部都至少有一次参赛机会。
Whole swaths of Asia are effectively left out. And this includes countries like Jordan (which is a playoff away from qualifying for the World Cup at the national-team level), North Korea (which qualified for the 2010 World Cup) or Iraq (a quarterfinalist at the 2011 Asian Cup and winner of the competition in 2007) as well as other parts of the continent where the game is hugely popular, like Indonesia and Malaysia.
在夹缝中求生的亚洲穷国被完全忽视了。其中包括约旦（险些获得世界杯参赛资格）、朝鲜（踢进了2010年世界杯比赛）或者伊拉克（2011年亚洲杯该国打入了四分之一决赛，2007年甚至捧走了冠军奖杯）以及印尼、马来西亚等足球运动十分流行的国度。
The argument against making the tournament more accessible is that teams from the weaker leagues would make the competition worse. The flip side, of course, is that you would increase revenue and interest across the continent and the benefits of this might well translate into better equipped teams from the supposedly inferior nations.
反对扩大亚冠准入资格的意见认为，实力较弱的联赛队伍将拉低整个比赛的水平。另一种相反的声音则指出，扩大准入资格能够增加收入、唤起全亚洲的兴趣，这个好处很可能推动一般意义上的差国为球队配置更精良的装备。
The other major difficulty for Asia is the very popularity of the game, or rather, the popularity of the European game. The ubiquity of high-quality European soccer on television and in other media is a major challenge, one which also applies to the Asian domestic leagues (and, of course, to Major League Soccer in the U.S. and Canada). When Borussia Dortmund BVB.XE +0.62% took on Arsenal last week, there was interest from fans beyond Germany and England. On the other hand, it's unlikely that Guangzhou versus FC Seoul, the showpiece of Asia's Champions' League, drew much of an audience outside of China and South Korea.
横亘在亚冠面前的另一大难题是足球运动的受欢迎程度——噢等等，毋宁说是“欧洲足球运动”的受欢迎程度。电视、其他媒体铺天盖地地转播欧洲的高水准球赛，令亚冠和亚洲各国足球联盟面临着巨大挑战（其实美国职业足球大联盟(Major League Soccer)和加拿大足球同样颇有压力）。上周德国多特蒙德(Borussia Dortmund)对决英国阿森纳(Arsenal)的比赛吸引了大量其他国家的球迷关注。相对地，广州恒大与首尔FC之间的较量不太可能吸引中国、韩国之外的观众。
Europe's entrenched first-mover advantage, coupled with the obvious qualitative gap between UEFA and the AFC means it will be a while before we can talk about competing continental club championships (assuming we ever do). But if that day ever comes, expect Asia to be the ones on a level footing with Europe.
欧洲足球运动牢牢占据着先动优势，而且亚冠与欧冠之间存在着质量上的鸿沟，这意味着亚冠离流行还有很长一段路要走。但假如那一天真的来临，希望亚洲足球能与欧洲足球相媲美。
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