Radical amendments to club competitions in the AFC
The Competitions Committee of the Asian Football Confederation has approved a set of strategic amendments in preparation for entering a new era of development as part of its commitment to enhance the value and status of club competitions in the Confederation.
The committee stated that the new amendments, which require the approval of the Executive Office, constitute the most significant change in club competitions since the establishment of the AFC Champions League in 2009, including the introduction of a new system for competitions, stopping work on the upper limit for foreign players participating with clubs, and increasing the value of financial allocations provided to participating clubs. .
The new system ensures that club competitions remain in a leading position in terms of raising technical standards, providing higher commercial value, and providing entertainment to fans in Asia.
Under it, 76 clubs compete to win championship titles that are held on 3 levels, instead of the current system that includes two levels of competition.
The highest level includes the participation of 24 clubs distributed over two regions in the west and east, and each region includes 12 clubs competing in a league system.
Each team plays 4 matches at home, and 4 matches away, against eight different clubs within the same region, and 8 clubs from each region qualify for the round of 16, whose matches will be held back and forth.
The quarter and semi-finals and the final will be held in one match, in the assembly system, in one country hosting the final match.
32 clubs participate in the second level, which is divided into 8 groups, and plays the league system from the home and away stages, and the first two teams from each group qualify for the round of 16.
The round of 16, quarter and semi-final matches will be held back and forth, with the final match being held from one round.
In the third level, 20 clubs are participating, divided into 5 groups, with the fragmented league system from one stage and the grouping system. The best 8 clubs qualify for the quarter-finals, whose matches will be played back and forth, provided that the final is held from one round.
She added that the losing clubs in the preliminary and qualifying rounds at the first level will have the opportunity to participate in the second level, and that the losing clubs from the preliminary and qualifying rounds in the second level will move to participate in the third level.
And she added that additional details of the changes would be completed later, including the names of the three tournaments, the principles of the match program, and the calendar and instructions.
The committee stated that it was approved to use the classification of club competitions in order to distribute seats in tournaments starting from the 2024-2025 season, based on the results of the national federations in the last 8 years (with setting a certain value for each year), and in a way that better reflects the performance over the years for these. Federations.
The final total of points will depend on the average performance of all clubs in the club competitions of the Confederation from the group stage, and will be applied retroactively in order to recalculate the points of the national associations in 2021 and 2022 in the classification of the AFC club competitions for the year 2022.
The committee agreed on a new system for the distribution of seats In the three tournaments, the new system will give the title holder the opportunity to participate in the next edition of the club competitions, in a way that gives additional sporting value to the clubs participating in each tournament.
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