2024–25 AFC Champions League Elite
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Teams | Competition proper: 24 (from 12 associations) |
← 2023–24 (AFC CL) 2025–26 → | |
International football competition
The 2024–25 AFC Champions League Elite will be the 43rd edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the first under this new name and rebranded format.[1]
The tournament winner will qualify for the 2025 FIFA Intercontinental Cup and 2029 FIFA Club World Cup (this is yet to be determined). Additionally, the winner will enter either the qualifying play-off stage or the League stage of the 2025–26 AFC Champions League Elite if they have not already qualified through their domestic performance.[2]
Saudi Arabia was announced as host of the final stage in December 2023.[3]
Association team allocation
The associations are allocated slots according to their club competitions ranking which was published after the 2022 competitions were completed.[4]
| Participation for 2024–25 AFC Champions League Elite | |
|---|---|
| Participating | |
| Not participating | |
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Teams
The following teams will also qualify to the West region unless they had already qualified based on their domestic performance.
|
|
- Notes
- ^ South Korea (KOR): Pohang Steelers had already qualified as the 2023 K League 1 runners-up when they won the 2023 Korean FA Cup, so third-placed Gwangju FC qualified for the Champions League Elite qualifying play-off. Since both East region finalists in the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup (Yokohama F. Marinos and Central Coast Mariners) had already qualified through their domestic performance, Gwangju were later confirmed for the league stage[5] based on their association's higher ranking, leaving only two teams left in the East region qualifying play-off for the remaining league stage slot.
Schedule
The schedule of the competition is as follows.[6]
| Stage | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preliminary stage | Preliminary round 1 | TBD | 30 July 2024 | |
| Preliminary round 2 | 6 August 2024 | |||
| Preliminary round 3 | 13 August 2024 | |||
| League stage | Matchday 1 | TBD | 16–18 September 2024 | |
| Matchday 2 | 30 September – 1 October 2024 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 21–23 October 2024 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 4–6 November 2024 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 25–27 November 2024 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 2–4 December 2024 | |||
| Matchday 7 | 3–4 & 11–12 February 2025 | |||
| Matchday 8 | 17–19 February 2025 | |||
| Round of 16 | TBD | 3–5 March 2025 | 10–12 March 2025 | |
| Final stage | Quarter-finals | TBD | 25–26 April 2025 | |
| Semi-finals | 29–30 April 2025 | |||
| Final | 4 May 2025 | |||
See also
References
- ^ "AFC Executive Committee approves biggest prize purse in Asian club football history from 2024/25; announces AFC Women's Champions League". AFC. 14 August 2023.
- ^ "More Member Associations to benefit from inclusive AFC Champions League". the-afc.com. Asian Football Confederation. 23 November 2019. Archived from the original on 27 November 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
- ^ "Saudi Arabia to host AFC Champions League Elite – Final Stage". the-AFC. Retrieved 2023-12-01.
- ^ "AFC Club Competitions Ranking". the-afc.com. Asian Football Confederation. Archived from the original on 2022-01-07. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
- ^ "광주FC - GWANGJU FOOTBALL CLUB". www.gwangjufc.com (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-04-24.
- ^ "AFC Competitions Committee approves key decisions on reformatted competitions". AFC. 1 July 2023.
- v
- t
- e
AFC Champions League
- History
- Finals
- Winning managers
- Records and statistics
- Performance comparison
Asian Champion Club Tournament era, 1967–1972 | |
| Seasons | |
|---|---|
Asian Club Championship era, 1985–2002 | |
| Seasons | |
|---|---|
AFC Champions League era, 2002–2024 | |
| Seasons | |
|---|---|
| Finals | |
AFC Champions League Elite era, since 2024 | |
| Seasons |
|
|---|---|
| Finals |
|
- Clubs by nation
- Australia
- Bangladesh
- China
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Iraq
- Japan
- Myanmar
- Pakistan
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- South Korea
- Thailand
- Vietnam
