Incidents of match-fixing and crowd violence, added to the continued decline of Chinese football, means 2008 will be remembered as a less than glowing one for the sport in East Asia.

Yet there were also many positives: exciting title races, incredible escapes from relegation and the emergence of promising talent.

In Japan's ever-improving J-League, Kashima Antlers won on the last day of the season to clinch a record sixth title. In the end it was a routine win for the Ibaraki team, but at the bottom there was nothing routine about JEF United's escape from relegation.

After failing to win in the first 11 games of the season, JEF appointed Liverpool assistant coach Alex Miller. The Scot's arrival led to better results but the Chiba club still needed to win its final match of the season against high-flying FC Tokyo.

Two goals down with 16 minutes left, JEF looked condemned to relegation, but somehow scored four late goals to beat the drop.

"It feels like we have won the title, it was incredible," one emotional supporter told Japanese television. "Some fans had already started to leave."

Urawa Reds, the 2007 Asian champions, dropped to a mediocre seventh, fired two coaches and was hit by a near US$200,000 fine after crowd trouble in a match against Gamba Osaka, the club which succeeded them by winning the 2008 Asian Champions League.

In what was described as the worst violence in the league's 15-year history, Gamba's exuberant celebrations after a 3-2 win prompted fighting between players and scuffles between fans. The 800 Gamba supporters were prevented from exiting the stadium for three hours.

J-League chairman Kenji Onitake said Urawa's management was "responsible for giving an impression to society that football stadiums are dangerous."

And it wasn't just inside the stadiums that danger lurked.

In China, two Shanghai Shenhua stars, Mao Jianqing and Liu Yintao, attacked a fellow diner at a restaurant after their club missed out on the title on the final day of the season.

Shanghai's last day failure allowed Shandong Luneng to lift a second title in three years.

The restaurant attack was just the latest in a long tale of woe for Chinese football. The national team crashed out of qualification for the 2010 World Cup at the first hurdle and also failed at the Beijing Olympics.

Domestically, the Wuhan Guanghu club withdrew from the Super League in protest after new star signing Li Weifeng was banned for eight matches in September for violent conduct.

"We made the decision because we must maintain the club's pride and be responsible for China's soccer and fans," Wuhan said at the time in a statement.

"We hope that by pulling out of the league, people involved in soccer will become aware of the problems and help develop the sport."

Soon after, China's main TV station, China Central TV, stopped broadcasting Chinese Super League matches.

"The state of Chinese football at the moment makes everyone feel bitter. If it goes on like this, it's in danger of being thoroughly destroyed," head of CCTV sports Jiang Heping said.

Match-fixers made their presence felt in South Korea's third-tier K3 league. A small number of players were found guilty of accepting bribes to lose games by large margins.

"This is the first time that players manipulated games for gamblers. We will be looking into other sports such as baseball, basketball and volleyball," Seoul police said.

That incident aside, 2008 was a positive year for Korean football, with the emergence of a number of young stars. Lee Chung-yung and Ki Sung-yung established themselves in the national team and helped club FC Seoul finish second in the K-League.

In the playoff final, Suwon Bluewings took the title with a 3-2 aggregate win. Over 80,000 fans watched the matches that were played in subzero temperatures.

South Korea and Japan remain on course for the 2010 World Cup after both collecting seven points from the opening three games of the final round of qualification.

(Agencies via Shanghai Daily December 26, 2008)