AFC Champions League Elite

1967–1972: Asian Champion Club Tournament

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) first discussed launching a tournament for the champions of AFC nations in a meeting held on 21 April 1963, with its Secretary Lee Wai Tong announcing the AFC's intention to hold a competition similar to the European Cup. ^[2] The competition started in 1967 as the Asian Champion Club Tournament and had a variety of different formats in its first few years, with the inaugural tournament staged as a straight knock-out 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 clubs to play them:

• In 1970, Lebanese club Homenetmen refused to play Hapoel Tel Aviv in the semi-final, which was scratched with Hapoel advancing to the final.
• In 1971, Aliyat Al-Shorta of Iraq refused to play Maccabi Tel Aviv on three occasions: in the preliminary round (which was redrawn), in the group stage, and then in the final, which was scratched with Maccabi being awarded the championship. ^[3] During the award ceremony for Maccabi, Aliyat Al-Shorta players waved the Palestinian flag around the field, with a match being arranged by the AFC and the Thai FA between Maccabi and a Combined Bangkok team in lieu of the final. ^[4] The Iraqi media considered Aliyat Al-Shorta as the tournament's winners, with the team holding an open top bus parade in Baghdad. ^[5]

After the 1972 edition had to be cancelled by the AFC for various reasons, including two Arab clubs being excluded for refusing to commit to playing against Israeli club Maccabi Netanya, the AFC suspended the competition for 14 years, while Israel would be expelled from the AFC in 1974.

1985–2002: Return as the Asian Club Championship

Asia's premier club tournament made its return in 1985 as the Asian Club Championship. ^[6]

In 1990, the Asian Football Confederation introduced the Asian Cup Winners' Cup, a tournament for the cup winners of each AFC nation, while the 1995 season saw the introduction of the Asian Super Cup, with the winners of the Asian Club Championship and Asian Cup Winners' Cup playing against each other.

2002–2024: AFC Champions League

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 Sasana 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 quarter-finals. The quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals were played as a two-legged format, with away goals, extra time, and penalties used as tie-breakers.

Expansion

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. However, many blamed the low prize money at that time and expensive travel cost as some of the reasons. The Champions League was 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, professional league structure, marketability, financial status, as well as other criteria set by the AFC Pro-League Committee. ^[7] The assessment criteria and ranking for participating associations are revised by AFC every two years. ^[8]

The old format saw the eight group winners and eight runners-up qualify to the round of 16, in which group winners played 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 couldn't 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. ^{[9] [10]}

In 2021, the group stage was 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 remained unchanged. The 10 group winners and top 3 runners-up per region are now seeded based on a combination table for the round of 16, with the games still matched regionally until the final. ^[11]

On 25 February 2022, it was announced that the AFC Champions League would go back to an inter-year (autumn to spring) schedule starting with the 2023–24 season. In addition, the existing "3+1" rule for foreign players during matches (3 foreign players and 1 Asian foreigner) was expanded to "5+1" (5 foreign players and 1 Asian foreigner). ^[12]

2024–25 onwards: AFC Champions League Elite

On 23 December 2022, the AFC announced that their club football structure would undergo an overhaul, with the top club competition shrinking from 40 teams in the main stage to 24 teams, divided into East and West regions (12 teams each), with each team in the East and West regions playing eight other teams from their region (four teams at home and four teams away). The top eight teams from each region would advance to the knockout stage, where only the round of 16 would be played over two legs, with all matches from the quarter-finals onward being played in a single-leg format at a centralised venue. ^[18] On 14 August 2023, it was confirmed that the new format would come into effect from the 2024–25 season, with the name of the competition changing to AFC Champions League Elite. ^[19] The AFC has also confirmed that AFC Champions League records and statistics would be carried forward to the ACL Elite. ^[20] In December 2023, Saudi Arabia were awarded hosting duties for the final stage for the first two seasons. ^[21]

Qualification

As of the 2024–25 edition of the tournament, the AFC Champions League Elite uses a league stage format of 24 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.

The number of teams that each association enters into the AFC Champions League Elite is determined annually through criteria as set by the AFC Competitions Committee. ^[22] 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 competition.

Tournament

The tournament proper begins with a league stage of 24 teams, which are split into two leagues (East and West), with each team playing against eight opponents from their league (four at home and four away). ^[23]

The top eight teams from each league advance to the round of 16. In this phase, each club face another club from its region in a two-legged, home-and-away tie to decide which eight clubs progress to a centralised Finals tournament. ^[23] If the aggregate score of the two games is tied after 180 minutes, the clubs play extra time. If still tied after extra time, the tie is decided by a penalty shoot-out.

The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final matches all feature cross-regional pairings, and are played in a single-leg format at centralised venue. ^[23]

Allocation

Teams from 24 AFC countries have reached the group stage of the AFC Champions League Elite. 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	2021	2022	2023–24
East Asia
Australia	Part of OFC				2	2	2	2	2	3	1*	3	2*	2*	3	2*	2*	3	0	2*	1
China PR	2	2	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	3	4	4	4	4	3*	4	4	4	2*	2	3*
Hong Kong	0*	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0*	0*	1*	1*	0*	0*	1	1	1*
Indonesia	0*	2	2	0	2	0	1*	1*	1*	0*	0	0	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*	4	4	4
South Korea	2	2	2	2	3	2	4	4	4	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*	1	1	1
Philippines	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0*	0*	0*	2	1*	1
Singapore	0*	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0*	0*	0*	0*	0*	0*	0*	1	1	1
Thailand	2	2	2	0	1	2	0*	0*	0*	1*	2	1*	1*	1*	1*	1*	1*	1*	4	2*	3*
Vietnam	0*	2	2	2	1	2	0	0*	0	0	0	0*	1*	1*	0*	0*	0*	0*	1	1	1*
Total	8	12	12	8	13	13	16	16	15	15	15	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	20	19	20
West Asia
Bahrain	0*	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0*	0	0	0*	0	0*	0*	0	0
India	0*	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0*	0*	0	0	0*	0*	0*	0*	0*	0*	0*	1	1	1
Iran	2	2	2	2	1	2	4	4	4	3*	3*	4	4	3*	4	4	3*	4	4	2	3*
Iraq	1*	2	2	2	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0	0	0	0	1*	1*	2*	1*	1
Jordan	0*	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0*	0*	0*	0*	0*	0*	1	1	1*
Kuwait	0*	1	2	2	2	2	0	0	0	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*	3*	4	2*
Saudi Arabia	1*	2	3	3	2	2	4	4	4	3*	4	4	4	4	4	2	4	4	3*	4	4
Syria	0*	0	2	2	2	2	0	0*	0*	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0
Tajikistan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0*	1	1	1
Turkmenistan	1*	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
United Arab Emirates	1*	3	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	4	4	3*	2*	3*	4	4	3*	4	3*	3*	2*
Uzbekistan	1*	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3*	2*	1*	4	4	2*	2*	2*	1*	2	2	4
Total	8	14	17	17	15	16	16	16	17	17	17	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	20	20	20
Total
Finals	16	26	29	25	28	29	32	32	32	32	32	32	32	32	32	32	32	32	40	39	40
Qualifying	53	26	29	25	28	29	35	37	36	37	35	47	49	45	47	46	51	52	45	46	53

Sponsorship

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

Official Global Partners

• Neom ^[25]
• Qatar Airways ^{[26] [27]}
• Visit Saudi

Official Global Supporters

• Konami ^[28]
• Molten ^[29]
• Tecno Mobile ^[30]

Video game

The current license holder for the AFC Champions League video game is Konami with the eFootball series. ^[31] The license also includes the competing teams.

Performances by club

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

v t e Club	Title(s)	Runners-up	Seasons won	Seasons runner-up
Al-Hilal	4	5	1991, 1999–2000, 2019, 2021	1986, 1987, 2014, 2017, 2022
Pohang Steelers	3	1	1996–97, 1997–98, 2009	2021
Urawa Red Diamonds	3	1	2007, 2017, 2022	2019
Esteghlal	2	2	1970, 1990–91	1991, 1998–99
Seongnam FC	2	2	1995, 2010	1996–97, 2004
Al Ain	2	2	2002–03, 2023–24	2005, 2016
Al-Ittihad	2	1	2004, 2005	2009
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	2	1	2006, 2016	2011
Maccabi Tel Aviv	2	0	1969, 1971	—
Al-Sadd	2	0	1988–89, 2011	—
Thai Farmers Bank	2	0	1993–94, 1994–95	—
Suwon Samsung Bluewings	2	0	2000–01, 2001–02	—
Ulsan HD	2	0	2012, 2020	—
Guangzhou	2	0	2013, 2015	—
Júbilo Iwata	1	2	1998–99	1999–2000, 2000–01
Hapoel Tel Aviv	1	1	1967	1970
Liaoning	1	1	1989–90	1990–91
Busan IPark	1	0	1985–86	—
JEF United Chiba	1	0	1986	—
Tokyo Verdy	1	0	1987	—
PAS Tehran	1	0	1992–93	—
Gamba Osaka	1	0	2008	—
Western Sydney Wanderers	1	0	2014	—
Kashima Antlers	1	0	2018	—
Al-Ahli	0	2	—	1985–86, 2012
Yokohama F. Marinos	0	2	—	1989–90, 2023–24
FC Seoul	0	2	—	2001–02, 2013
Persepolis	0	2	—	2018, 2020
Selangor	0	1	—	1967
Yangzee	0	1	—	1969
Aliyat Al-Shorta	0	1	—	1971
Al-Rasheed	0	1	—	1988–89
Al-Shabab	0	1	—	1992–93
Oman Club	0	1	—	1993–94
Al-Arabi	0	1	—	1994–95
Al-Nassr	0	1	—	1995
Dalian Shide	0	1	—	1997–98
Police Tero	0	1	—	2002–03
Al-Karamah	0	1	—	2006
Sepahan	0	1	—	2007
Adelaide United	0	1	—	2008
Zob Ahan	0	1	—	2010
Shabab Al-Ahli	0	1	—	2015

Performances by nation

Performances in finals by nation

v t e Nation	Titles	Runners-up	Total
South Korea	12	7	19
Japan	8	5	13
Saudi Arabia	6	10	16
Iran	3	6	9
China	3	2	5
Israel	3	1	4
United Arab Emirates	2	3	5
Qatar	2	1	3
Thailand	2	1	3
Australia	1	1	2
Iraq	0	2	2
Malaysia	0	1	1
Oman	0	1	1
Syria	0	1	1

Performances by region

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

Most Valuable Player

Year	Player	Club	Ref.
1996–97	An Ik-soo	Pohang Steelers	[32]
1997–98	Ahmed Al-Dokhi	Al Hilal	[33]
1998–99	Seydou Traoré	Al-Ain	[34]
1999–2000	Sérgio Ricardo	Al Hilal	[35]
2000–01	Zoltan Sabo	Suwon Samsung Bluewings	[36]
2001–02	—
2002–03	Therdsak Chaiman	BEC Tero Sasana	[37]
2004	Redha Tukar	Al-Ittihad	[38]
2005	Mohammed Noor	Al-Ittihad	[39]
2006	Choi Jin-cheul	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	[40]
2007	Yuichiro Nagai	Urawa Red Diamonds
2008	Yasuhito Endō	Gamba Osaka
2009	No Byung-jun	Pohang Steelers	[41]
2010	Sasa Ognenovski	Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma	[42]
2011	Lee Dong-gook	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	[43]
2012	Lee Keun-ho	Ulsan Hyundai	[44]
2013	Muriqui	Guangzhou Evergrande	[45]
2014	Ante Covic	Western Sydney Wanderers	[46]
2015	Ricardo Goulart	Guangzhou Evergrande	[47]
2016	Omar Abdulrahman	Al-Ain	[48]
2017	Yōsuke Kashiwagi	Urawa Red Diamonds	[49]
2018	Yuma Suzuki	Kashima Antlers	[50]
2019	Bafétimbi Gomis	Al-Hilal	[51]
2020	Yoon Bit-garam	Ulsan Hyundai	[52]
2021	Salem Al-Dawsari	Al-Hilal	[53]
2022	Hiroki Sakai	Urawa Red Diamonds	[54]
2023–24	Soufiane Rahimi	Al Ain	[55]

Top scorers

Year	Player	Club	Goals
2002–03	Hao Haidong	Dalian Shide	9
2004	Kim Do-hoon	Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma	9
2005	Mohamed Kallon	Al-Ittihad	6
2006	Magno Alves	Gamba Osaka	8
2007	Mota	Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma	7
2008	Nantawat Tansopa	Krung Thai Bank	9
2009	Leandro	Gamba Osaka	10
2010	Jose Mota	Suwon Samsung Bluewings	9
2011	Lee Dong-gook	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	9
2012	Ricardo Oliveira	Al-Jazira	12
2013	Muriqui	Guangzhou Evergrande	13
2014	Asamoah Gyan	Al-Ain	12
2015	Ricardo Goulart	Guangzhou Evergrande	8
2016	Adriano	FC Seoul	13
2017	Omar Kharbin	Al-Hilal	10
2018	Baghdad Bounedjah	Al-Sadd	13
2019	Bafétimbi Gomis	Al-Hilal	11
2020	Abderrazak Hamdallah [56]	Al-Nassr	7
2021	Michael Olunga [57]	Al-Duhail	9
2022	Edmilson Junior [58]	Al-Duhail	8
2023–24	Soufiane Rahimi [55]	Al Ain	13