AFC Champions League

The competition started as the Asian Club Championship, a tournament for the champions of each AFC nation, and had a variety of different formats, with the inaugural tournament staged as a straightforward knockout format and the following three editions consisting of a group stage.

While Israeli clubs dominated the first four editions of the competition, this was partly due to the refusal of Arab teams to face them. In 1970, Lebanese side Homenetmen refused to play against Hapoel Tel Aviv in the semi-final, giving Hapoel a forfeit into the final, while in 1971, Al-Shorta of Iraq refused to play against Maccabi Tel Aviv on two separate occasions: in the group stage, and the final itself. The Arab media considered the Iraqi side as the tournament's winners, and the team held an open top bus parade in Baghdad.[1] After the 1972 edition had to be cancelled by the AFC when two Arab teams refused to commit to playing against Israeli side Maccabi Netanya, the AFC discontinued the competition, and Israel were expelled from the confederation.

Asia's premier club tournament made its return in 1985, and in 1990, the Asian Football Confederation introduced the Asian Cup Winners' Cup, a tournament for the cup winners of each AFC nation. The 1995 season saw the introduction of the Asian Super Cup, where the winners of the Asian Club Championship and Asian Cup Winners' Cup played against each other.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino and more than 100,000 fans watching the 2018 AFC Champions League Final at Azadi Stadium.

The 2002–03 season saw the Asian Club Championship, Asian Cup Winners' Cup and Asian Super Cup combine to become the AFC Champions League. League champions and cup winners would qualify for the qualifying playoffs with the best eight clubs from East Asia and the eight best clubs from West Asia progressing to the group stage. The first winners under the AFC Champions League name were Al-Ain, defeating BEC Tero 2–1 on aggregate. In 2004, 29 clubs from fourteen countries participated and the tournament schedule was changed to March–November. In the group stage, the 28 clubs were divided into seven groups of four on a regional basis, separating East Asian and West Asian clubs to reduce travel costs, and the groups were played on a home and away basis. The seven group winners along with the defending champions qualified to the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals were played as a two-legged format, with away goals, extra time, and penalties used as tie-breakers.

The 2005 season saw Syrian clubs join the competition, thus increasing the number of participating countries to 15, and two years later, following their transfer into the AFC in 2006, Australian clubs were also included in the tournament. Owing to the lack of professionalism in Asian football, many problems still existed in the tournament, such as on field violence and late submission of player registration. Many blamed the lack of prize money and expensive travel cost as some of the reasons. The Champions League expanded to 32 clubs in 2009 with direct entry to the top ten Asian leagues. Each country received up to 4 slots, though no more than one-third of the number of teams in that country's top division, rounded downwards, depending on the strength of their league, league structure (professionalism), marketability, financial status, and other criteria set by the AFC Pro-League Committee.[2] The assessment criteria and ranking for participating associations would be revised by AFC every two years.[3]

The current format sees the eight group winners and eight runners-up qualify to the Round of 16, in which group winners play host to the runners-up in two-legged series, matched regionally, with away goals, extra time, and penalties used as tie-breakers. The regional restriction continues all the way until the final, although clubs from the same country cannot face each other in the quarterfinals unless that country has three or more representatives in the quarterfinals. Since 2013, the final has also been held as a two-legged series, on a home and away basis.[4][5]

Beginning from 2021, the group stage will be expanded from 32 to 40 teams, with both the West and East Regions having five groups of four teams. The slot allocation for the top six member associations in each region will remain unchanged.[6]

Map of AFC countries whose teams reached the group stage of the AFC Champions League

  AFC member country that has been represented in the group stage

  AFC member country that has not been represented in the group stage

As of the 2009 edition of the tournament, the AFC Champions League has commenced with a double round-robin group stage of 32 teams, which is preceded by qualifying matches for teams that do not receive direct entry to the competition proper. Teams are also split into east and west zones to progress separately in the tournament.

The number of teams that each association enters into the AFC Champions League is determined annually through criteria as set by the AFC Competitions Committee.[7] The criteria, which is a modified version of the UEFA coefficient, measures such thing as marketability and stadia to determine the specific number of berths that an association receives. The higher an association's ranking as determined by the criteria, the more teams represent the association in the Champions League, and the fewer qualification rounds the association's teams must compete in.

The tournament proper begins with a group stage of 32 teams, divided into eight groups. Seeding is used whilst making the draw for this stage, with teams from the same country not being drawn into groups together. The group stage is divided into two zones; the first zone is the four East Asian groups and the other zone is the four West Asian groups. Each team meets the others in its group home and away in a round-robin format. The winning team and the runners-up from each group then progress to the next round.

For this stage, the winning team from one group plays against the runners-up from another group from their zone of the group stage. The tournament uses the away goals rule: if the aggregate score of the two games is tied after 180 minutes, then the team who scored more goals at their opponent's stadium advances. If still tied the clubs play extra time, where the away goals rule is no longer applied. If still tied after extra time, the tie shall be decided by a penalty shootout. East and West zones continue to be kept part until the final.[7]

The group stage and Round of 16 matches are played through the first half of the year (February–May), whilst the knock-out stage thereafter is played during the second half of the year (August–November). The knock-out ties are played in a two-legged format, including the final.

Teams from only 19 AFC countries have reached the group stage of the AFC Champions League. The allocation of teams by member countries is listed below; asterisks represent occasions where at least one team was eliminated in qualification prior to the group stage. 32 AFC countries have had teams participate in qualification, and countries that have never had teams reach the group stage are not shown.

Associations	Entrants
	2002–03	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
East Asia
Australia	–	–	–	–	2	2	2	2	2	3	1*	3	2*	2*	3	2*	2*	3
China PR	2	2	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	3	4	4	4	4	3*	4	4	4
Hong Kong	0*	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0*	0*	1*	1*	0*	0*
Indonesia	0*	2	2	0	2	0	1*	1*	1*	0*	0	0	0*	0	0	0*	0*	0*
Japan	2	2	2	2	2	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3*
South Korea	2	2	2	2	3	2	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Malaysia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0*	0*	0*	1*	1*
Singapore	0*	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0*	0*	0*	0*	0*	0*	0*
Thailand	2	2	2	0	1	2	0*	0*	0*	1*	2	1*	1*	1*	1*	1*	1*	1*
Vietnam	0*	2	2	2	1	2	0	0*	0	0	0	0*	1*	1*	0*	0*	0*	0*
Total	8	12	12	8	13	13	16	16	15	15	15	16	16	16	16	16	16	16
West Asia
Bahrain	0*	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0*	0	0	0*	0	0*
Iran	2	2	2	2	1	2	4	4	4	3*	3*	4	4	3*	4	4	3*	4
Iraq	1*	2	2	2	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0	0	0	0	1*	1*
Kuwait	0*	1	2	2	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0*	0	0	0	0*	0*
Qatar	1*	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	4	4	4	2*	2*	2*	4	3*	2*
Saudi Arabia	1*	2	3	3	2	2	4	4	4	3*	4	4	4	4	4	2	4	4
Syria	0*	0	2	2	2	2	0	0*	0*	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Turkmenistan	1*	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
United Arab Emirates	1*	3	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	4	4	3*	2*	3*	4	4	3*	4
Uzbekistan	1*	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3*	2*	1*	4	4	2*	2*	2*	1*
Total	8	16	17	17	15	16	16	16	17	17	17	16	16	16	16	16	16	16
Total
Finals	16	28	29	25	28	29	32	32	32	32	32	32	32	32	32	32	32	32
Qualifying	53	28	29	25	28	29	35	37	36	37	35	47	49	45	47	46	51	52

Tournament's trophy

Like the FIFA World Cup, the AFC Champions League is sponsored by a group of multinational corporations, in contrast to the single main sponsor typically found in national top-flight leagues.

The tournament's current main sponsors are:

• Abu Dhabi Airport[9]
• Fly Emirates[9]
• Molten[10] (Currently supply Adidas match balls, as Molten are the official manufacturers and distributors of Adidas in Japan[11])
• Nikon[9]
• Kärcher[12]
• QNB Group[9]
• Allianz[13]
• Toyota[14]
• Tsingtao[9]
• Seiko[9]
• C'estbon[15]
• Lagardère Group[16]
• PES[17]

Performances in the Asian Club Championship and AFC Champions League by club

Club	Titles	Runners-up	Seasons won	Seasons runner-up
Al-Hilal	3	4	1991, 2000, 2019	1986, 1987, 2014, 2017
Pohang Steelers	3	0	1997, 1998, 2009	—
Esteghlal	2	2	1970, 1990–91	1991, 1999
Seongnam FC	2	2	1995, 2010	1997, 2004
Al-Ittihad	2	1	2004, 2005	2007, 2017
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	2	1	2006, 2016	2011
Urawa Red Diamonds	2	1	2007, 2017	2019
Maccabi Tel Aviv2	2	0	1969, 1971	—
Thai Farmers Bank1	2	0	1994, 1994–95	—
Suwon Samsung Bluewings	2	0	2001, 2002	—
Al-Sadd	2	0	1989, 2011	—
Guangzhou Evergrande	2	0	2013, 2015	—
Jubilo Iwata	1	2	1999	2000, 2001
Al-Ain	1	2	2003	2005, 2016
Hapoel Tel Aviv2	1	1	1967	1970
Liaoning Whowin	1	1	1990	1990–91
Busan IPark	1	0	1985–86	—
JEF United Chiba	1	0	1986	—
Tokyo Verdy	1	0	1987	—
PAS Tehran1	1	0	1993	—
Gamba Osaka	1	0	2008	—
Ulsan Hyundai	1	0	2012	—
Western Sydney Wanderers	1	0	2014	—
Al-Ahli	0	2	—	1985–86, 2012
FC Seoul	0	2	—	2002, 2013
Selangor	0	1	—	1967
Yangzee1	0	1	—	1969
Al-Shorta	0	1	—	1971
Al-Rasheed1	0	1	—	1989
Yokohama F. Marinos	0	1	—	1990
Al-Shabab	0	1	—	1993
Oman Club	0	1	—	1994
Al-Arabi	0	1	—	1994–95
Al-Nassr	0	1	—	1995
Dalian Shide1	0	1	—	1998
Police Tero	0	1	—	2003
Al-Karamah	0	1	—	2006
Sepahan	0	1	—	2007
Adelaide United	0	1	—	2008
Zob Ahan	0	1	—	2010
FC Seoul	0	1	—	2013
Shabab Al-Ahli	0	1	—	2015
Persepolis	0	1	—	2018

¹ Club no longer exists.
² In 1974 the Israel FA was expelled from the AFC due to political pressure, and became a full UEFA member in 1994. As a result, Israeli clubs no longer participate in AFC tournaments but in their UEFA counterparts instead.

Note: Israeli clubs, winners of the 1967, 1969 and 1971 editions, are not included.