I. Introduction of AFC Champions League
AFC Champions League, also known as the Asian Champions League, or AFC Champions League for short, is an Asian club football championship founded by AFC in 2002, formerly known as the Asian Champions Club Championship and the Asian Club Championship.
The AFC Champions League is the highest level of club football in Asia, equivalent to the European Champions League and the Libertadores Cup in South America, and higher than the AFC Champions Cup. The winning team will represent AFC in the FIFA Club World Cup. The top 10 associations in the Asian Games have places to directly participate in the group matches, and the remaining eight group matches will be produced through play-offs.
Second, the qualifications for the competition
All association members will be divided into "West Asia" and "East Asia", and each region has 23 member associations: West Asia will be composed of people from West Asia, Central Asia and South Asia, and East Asia will be composed of people from Southeast Asia and East Asia. Each region will have 16 directly qualified for the group stage, and the remaining four seats will be produced through the playoff stage.
Group stage and knockout stage:
1, group match
AFC Champions League group stage * * *, a total of 40 teams will participate, which will be divided into 10 group stage, including 5 teams from East Asia and 5 teams from West Asia. The game will be played in the form of home and away games. The winner of each game gets three points, the draw gets one point, and the loser gets zero point. The team in the first group 10 and the second group with the best performance will advance to the top 16.
2. knockout
In the knockout stage, it is used in both home and away rounds. In addition, there are only two winners and runners-up, and there is no competition for the third place. Teams that advance to the quarter-finals will draw lots again, and the final and semi-final of 1/4 will be decided at the same time. There are no group rankings, association differences or home and away restrictions in this lottery.
The final adopts the home and away two-turn system, and the semi-final winners in each district play against each other. The order of home and away games is determined by the promotion table decided by the draw of the quarter-finals. The winner of the final is the champion of this season's Asian Champions League, who can participate in the FIFA Club World Cup that year.