Officials are waiting to hear whether the winner of 2008 tournament will be given automatic entry into the following year's tournament with the club having pushed its case at this week's AFC general managers' seminar in Kuala Lumpur.

United's football director Michael Petrillo told au.fourfourtwo.com today that the club would wait and see what the AFC decided upon but felt 'more confident' after the two-day event which saw the issue discussed by delegates.

He said: "We believe the winner should defend the title as it guarantees the best team in Asia takes part in the tournament."

The seminar also confirmed that the winner of next year's event will receive $1.5m dollars (US) compared to the $600,000 currently on offer to the winner.

There will also be cash rewards at each stage of next season's competition, with a victory in the group stages worth $40,000 and a draw netting $20,000.

But Petrillo said nobody at the club was losing sight of the fact that there was still work to be done to lift the 2008 trophy. No-one at Hindmarsh is simply content just to have made the final.

While the club is delighted with all the positive publicity their push to the ACL final has generated, the attitude is one that the job's not yet done.

He said: "We have reached the final and we want to win it. What I thought was great was that within a short time of the semi-final being over, people were already re-focusing and looking ahead to the final, saying let's go win it.

"We are delighted to have got this far, a team effort that has got us this far and by that I mean players, coaching staff, office staff and those washing the kits. But we want to go one step further and lift the trophy."

The AFC announce which countries qualify for the 2009 AFC Champions League by the middle of December.