1 and AFC Champions League Overview
The AFC Champions League, also known as the Asian Champions League, is an Asian club football tournament founded by the AFC in 2002. Its predecessor was the Asian Championship Club Championship and the Asian Club Championship.
AFC Champions League is the highest level of Asian club football, higher than AFC Champions Cup. The winning team will represent AFC in the FIFA Club World Cup.
2. History of AFC Champions League
The first Asian Champions Club Championship was held in 1967, with 8 teams participating. The tournament of 197 1 was suspended until 1986 was reopened and renamed as the Asian Club Championship. Only local league champions can participate. The first Asian Cup Winners' Cup was held in 199 1, with the participation of world cup champions. The winners of the two events will compete for the Asian Super Cup.
In the 2009 AFC Champions League, the number of participating clubs increased to 32. Only 1 1 with the highest score can participate. In addition, the champion and runner-up of the AFC Champions Cup can also participate in the new qualifying stage. The form of the group competition will be the same as before, except that the first and second place of the eight groups can get the right to qualify for the final of 1/8. Starting from this tournament, the new logo of AFC Champions League will be launched.
Starting from the 20021season, the AFC Champions League will become 40 teams, from 4 teams in East Asia and West Asia to 5 teams in each region. The number of teams participating in the AFC Champions League has also become the largest on the African continent.
In February 2022, AFC officially announced that starting from the 2023-24 season, AFC Champions League will increase the number of foreign aid from "3+ 1" to "5+ 1", that is, five foreign players with unlimited nationality and 1 players from AFC member associations, and the competition system will be changed from spring and autumn to autumn-spring New Year's Eve.
3. Introduction to the Competition System
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.