It was the first final to feature a club fromAustralia and the second consecutive season with aJapanese finalist, in 2014 a second Australian club, theWestern Sydney Wanderers made the final and won it. The winners, Gamba Osaka, receivedUS$600,000 prize money and qualified to represent Asia in the2008 FIFA Club World Cup, where they were defeated in the semi-finals byPremier League andUEFA Champions League winnersManchester United. Despite losing this final, Adelaide United also qualified for the FIFA Club World Cup by replacing the conventional host country berth, which was provisionally reserved for theJ. League champions, and were defeated once again by host team Gamba Osaka in the quarter-finals.
The rules for the final were exactly the same as for the previous knockout rounds. The tie was contested over two legs withaway goals deciding the winner if the two teams were level on goals after the second leg. If the teams could still not be separated at that stage thenextra time would have been played with apenalty shootout taking place if the teams were still level after that.
Adelaide United considered applying for permission to play their home leg in a stadium larger than Hindmarsh such asAdelaide Oval orAAMI Stadium but the club eventually decided that it would not be right to play such a big match away from their traditional home despite its smaller capacity.[3]