Source: AFC

The awards for Asia's best footballer are due to be given out next week at the annual dinner of the Asian Football Confederation, and while the region's rising football profile will be on show, some of its most successful players will not be on the dias, or even making the shortlist.

Top Asian players such as Park Ji-Sung, Ali Karimi and Hidetoshi Nakata are not in the running, according to the International Herald Tribune not because of recent slumps in performances, or troubled personal lives, but because they ply their trade outside Asian, and, among other reasons, cannot be present at the ceremony due to fixture schedules in Europe.

Instead, the three shortlisted players for the men's award include two Saudis playing at home, Sami Al Jaber of Al Hilal and Hamad Al Montashari of Al Ittihad, and Uzbeki striker Maksim Shatskikh, whose Kiev side is on winter break.

The Korean confederation for one has sent a letter of protest to the AFC spurred by Park's omission.

The IHT points out that the African confederation doesn't have the same problem, or perhaps excuse, in dealing with its top players, all of whom play in Europe. It's award dinner falls during the winter break for continental teams.