Matt Thompson has been given the captain's armband for Newcastle Jets upcoming Asian Champions League campaign. With the departure of former skipper Joel Griffiths, the Jets have installed the A-League games record holder as the man to lead them into the unknown frontier of the Asian competition.

"The club has looked at a variety of leadership models around the world and settled on a policy which it believes will promote loyalty and tradition," said Jets director of football Remo Nogarotto.

"Everyone has a view about what constitutes the ideal captain and invariably it gets down to a personal opinion. This policy in our mind removes this subjectivity and institutionalises the honour for those players who, over a long period, have put the club first.

"Matt Thompson has been with us from day one. He has been a loyal and proud member of this club through its highs and lows.

"He embodies the sort of understated but important values that are representative of the Hunter and in recent times he has won belated recognition with the Socceroos.

"It is no surprise that a guy with these qualities ends up intersecting with this policy."