A-League title contenders Adelaide United have made, mostly, all the right moves on the pitch, but their footwork off the field has been strictly B Grade.

And their apparent lack of attention to detail could derail their Asian Champions League campaign.

United arrived in Japan last week to prepare for their first leg match against Kashima Antlers and were stunned to discover that one of their key players, Ivorian Jonas Salley, was not eligible to play.

Though a recently naturalised Australian, Salley did not qualify to represent United as an Australian because he had failed to meet a new FIFA requirement that states a player must have been a resident for five years to represent that country or one of its clubs in international competitions.

Salley has been resident in Australia for three-and-half years.

The dilemma for United is that each club is allowed three foreign players in their Asian Champions League squads and United had already nominated their trio, ruling "Aussie" Jonas out the United's Champions League campaign.

FIFA made their ruling in May, but why did it take four months, and until the eve of the Kashima match, for United to grasp the impact of that ruling?

As if that embarrassment wasn't enough, United arrived back in Australia after their heroic 1-1 draw against Kashima to be confronted by a hotel room bungle in Sydney where they had stopped on the way back from Japan to play a key A-League match against Sydney FC, last Saturday.

But when they arrived at their Sydney hotel early on Friday morning after the 10 hour flight from Tokyo, United could not access their rooms until early afternoon, forcing the players to sleep on the floor in the hotel’s function room until their rooms became available hours later.

But surely United's management should have known that there was no guarantee they would be able to access their booked rooms so early in the day. They should have done what seasoned international travellers do – book the previous night as well.

This might seem an extravagance but considering how well they looked after the players in terms of post-match recovery after the Kashima game but it was a remarkable oversight.

The result of course was a listless display against Sydney FC which strolled to a 3-0 win over a fatigued United team featuring eight changes from the Kashima game.

A fully rested United team may not have produced a different result but the hotel incident certainly didn't help United recover from the overnight flight.

It also questions the wisdom of taking virtually the entire squad of 23 players to Japan although only 15 of them could take to the field against Kashima, knowing they had a tough game back in Australia three days later.

No doubt lessons have been learned by United's management, but what matters is that United overcome Kashima in the return leg quarter final at Adelaide's Hindmarsh Stadium on Wednesday night.

More than 12,000 tickets have been sold and a capacity crowd is assured and it will be one of the finest achievements by any Adelaide sporting team if United can secure the historic result before their own fans.

If they get the result and move to the semi finals it will be a bitter sweet moment for Jonas Salley who will again be sidelined, all because of an administrative bungle.