Kashiwa Reysol and Al Sadd have booked their semi-final places in the FIFA Club World Cup following hard fought victories over Monterrey CF and Esperance Tunis respectively.

Kashiwa, representing the host nation Japan as the 2011 J-League champions, needed a penalty shoot-out to get past North and Central American champions Monterrey after the two teams had played out a 1-1 draw.

Kashiwa Reysol's FIFA Club World Cup dream ended today at the hands of South American champions Santos FC. Neymar was amongst the goals for the Brazilians as they claimed a 3-1 win against the J-League champions whilst earlier in the day North and Central American champions Monterrey CF won the 5th/6th place play-off, getting the better of African champions Espérance Tunis by the odd goal in five.

It may not have been the most difficult challenge that FC Barcelona would have to face in their quest to become FIFA Club World Cup winners. That, however, did not dampen the celebrations as the Spanish and European champions strolled their way past a poor Santos FC team courtesy of a 4-0 victory.

AFC Champions League title holders Al-Sadd were the surprise winners of Asia's premier club competition and will feature in their first FIFA Club World Cup. Al Sadd, who hail from the Qatari capital city of Doha, have a quarter-final meeting with African champions Espérance and, should they emerge victorious, will look forward to a semi-final encounter against FC Barcelona.

Indonesia Super League
Pelita Jaya v Sriwijaya 1-3 (Victor Igbenefo; Keith Kayamba 2, Siswanto) 5,651 Asian Football PicturesPersib v Persiram 3-2 (Airlangga, M Ilham, Miljan Radovic; Okatvianus Maniani, JP Boumsong) 20,283

Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors are South Korean champions for the second time in three years following their play-off triumph over Ulsan Hyundai.

Jeonbuk were huge favourites going into this year's final having finished top of the regular season standings whilst their opponents Ulsan had knocked out FC Seoul, Suwon Samsung Bluewings and Pohang Steelers en route to this year's showpiece.

Kashiwa Reysol secured the J-League title and a place in the FIFA Club World Cup as the host nation's representatives following a climatic finish to the season in Japan this weekend. The title triumph was all the more remarkable given that the team had only won promotion from the Japanese second division last season.

Hyundai A-League champions Brisbane Roar finally lost their unbeaten record this season when going down to a 2-0 reverse at the hands of Sydney FC today.

Two goals in the opening twenty minutes of the match put paid to Brisbane's chances of victory today but the Roar still top the standings with a three point margin separating them from nearest challengers Central Coast Mariners.

My latest piece in the Jakarta Globe looks at the IPL v ISL fiasco while pictures from Persija v Persidafon can be found on Asian Football Pictures.

The FIFA Club World Cup officially got under way today with two goals just before half-time giving Kashiwa Reysol a 2-0 win over Auckland City in the qualifying play-off to send the Japanese club through to the quarter-finals.

Kashiwa, who clinched the 2011 J-League title last weekend, had Junya Tanaka and Masato Kudo to thank as the pair struck in the 37th and 40th minutes respectively to send the host nation's representatives into the next round.

The South Asian Football Championship has been taking place in India since the beginning of December. The biannual event retained its recent trend of seeing the Indian national team win the championship this time defeating Afghanistan in yesterday's final by four goals to nil.

In the early stages of the tournament Afghanistan had the early advantage over India with both teams meeting each other in Group A, along with Sri Lanka and Bhutan, and the Afghans finishing top of the group on goal difference.

Division One action yesterday, once I finally found the bloody stadium. The game had been moved to Ramkamheng because of the flooding that had effected Air Force's usual stadium but was the stadium easy to find? Was it bollocks. Every bugger I asked either knew nothing about it or pointed me unhelpfully to Rajamangala which is nearby.

Bahrain have won the Gold Medal at the 2011 Pan Arab Games football tournament in Qatar.

Bahrain had qualified for the final by virtue of topping their group in the first stage, gaining back-to-back wins over host nation Qatar and Iraq, before eliminating Palestine in the semi-final ahead of yesterday's final match.