ESPNSTAR.com columnist Jesse Fink believes that the AFC Champions League is structurally flawed.

One of the truly odd things about the Asian Champions League, the 30th edition of which kicks off today, is why Australia, a country that recently saw its national side compete in the final of the Asian Cup and has been to two consecutive World Cups, has just two entrants while Japan, South Korea, Iran, China and Saudi Arabia have four automatic spots.

The main reasoning, apparently, is the size of the A-League, which comprises just 11 professional teams, while the aforementioned quintet boasts a bare minimum of 14 (in Saudi Arabia's case) and goes up to 18 (Japan and Iran).

But other factors come into it, such as marketing and promotion, governance, technical standard, media support and attendance. More nebulous issues such as corruption and political interference - a massive problem in Asian football - don't seem to matter so much.

Certainly as far as professionalism goes, Australia does not give anything away to the rest of Asia so it's not a stretch to say it is being disproportionately punished for its austerity. Quality not quantity should matter, but not in the eyes of the Asian Football Confederation.

Expansion has always been a priority for Football Federation Australia, the organisation that manages the A-League, chiefly with an eye to more ACL spots.

But the failure of the country's World Cup bid, falling crowds, evaporating revenue streams and its own dereliction of due diligence regarding new franchises have all combined to now compel the FFA to make the decision to cut the league to ten for 2012 when the plan was to go to 12.

North Queensland Fury, only two seasons old, is facing extinction this week. A mooted expansion team, Sydney Rovers, never saw the light of day.

Ten teams is two less than the ACL's own minimum "target" for participation in the ACL in 2012. The Australian game - at least in the Asian scheme of things - is going backwards at a rate of knots, which makes the likelihood of seeing more Australian teams in the ACL any time soon even more remote. It's a crushing blow for local fans and a setback, in my view, for the greater good of Asian football.

Yet it's not an accurate reflection of the truth.

The Australian league is already among the best in Asia and this season has exploded in terms of playing quality (as anyone who has see Brisbane Roar play will attest) but when it only gets two spots in the first place and its participating ACL teams have to wait a whole nearly a year to finally see action (Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory played in the grand final last March and are out of contention for honours this season) it is always going to be a struggle to show itself in its best light.

So a combination of the AFC's eccentricity and the FFA's incompetency is keeping Australian football suppressed.

And as a result we are seeing an ACL that is a distorted representation of the true complexity and strength of the Asian game.

This distortion applies not just to Australia but across the board. China should not have four automatic spots. UAE should not have three. Indonesia should not have any at all.

And last year's winner, Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma of South Korea, should have been granted an automatic right to defend its title. Instead that was denied.

So while Mohamed bin Hammam is right to be proud about the leaps and bounds the ACL is making as a prestigious football tournament, it is still deeply structurally flawed.

Yes, Asia is a part of the world where normal rules don't apply. But when the rules that do exist don't make much sense at all, we have a problem.