AFC Champions League

Sports Name: Soccer / Football

Not Yet Rated

1 Star

2 Star

3 Star

4 Star

5 Star

Updated On : 11 Jul, 2023

Full Name
AFC Champions League

Type
regional

Location
Asia

Disabled
No

Conducted
Annually

Gender
Male

Trivia

The competition started in the year 1967 as the Asian Champion Club Tournament and was discontinued after the 1971 season for fourteen years due to the absence of professionalism and awareness. However, it restarted in the year 1985 as the rebranded Asian Club Championship to make its mark as one of the most premier clubs football championships in the football world.

The AFC Champions League, also known as Asian Champions League is the premier annual club football tournament, held in Asia. Since its inception, the Championship has made incredible progress. Today, this Championship has established itself alongside UEFA Champions League, CONMEBOL, CONCACAF, CAF and OFC. Organized by the Asian Football Federation, a total of forty-five teams participate in the tournament, and amongst them, thirty-two make it to the group stage. AFC introduced the Asian Cup Winners’ Cup and Asian Super Cup in the year 1991 and 1995, respectively. The Asian Cup Winners’ Cup was played among the winners of the domestic leagues of the countries affiliated to the AFC, while the latter was played between the winners of Asian Club Championship and Asian Cup Winners’ Cup. Japanese club Yokohama F Marinos and Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal are the most successful teams in the Asian Cup Winners’ Cup. They both have won the tournament twice. Al-Hilal and Suwon Samsung Bluewings are the most successful teams in the Asian Super Cup, winning the tournament twice. In the year 2002, both these competitions were combined and named as the AFC Champions League. The winner of the AFC Champions League automatically qualifies for the FIFA Club World Cup.

Competition Format

The format of the championship has undergone many changes since its foundation. Currently, the tournament includes a qualifier round which precedes the group stage playoffs.
The qualifier round is composed of qualifying matches for teams that don’t get direct entry to the competition.
The teams are divided into zones such as east and west.
The number of teams that each association goes into the AFC Champions League is resolved yearly through benchmarks set by the AFC Competitions Committee.
The proper tournament begins with a group stage knock out of 32 teams. These teams are split into eight groups.
Teams from the same country are not necessarily drawn into same groups.
Each team faces other teams in its group at home and away in a round-robin format.
The top two teams from each group compete against each other to reach the quarter-finals. The winner of a group faces the runner-up of another group.