2017 AFC Champions League
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 24 January – 25 November 2017 |
| Teams | Maximum of 54 (from Maximum of 24 associations) |
The 2017 AFC Champions League will be the 36th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 15th under the current AFC Champions League title.
The winners of the 2017 AFC Champions League will qualify as the AFC representative at the 2017 FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. If a team from the United Arab Emirates wins the AFC Champions League, the runners-up will also qualify (in place of the winners of the 2016–17 UAE Pro-League).
Association team allocation
The AFC Competitions Committee proposed a revamp of the AFC club competitions on 25 January 2014,[1] which was ratified by the AFC Executive Committee on 16 April 2014.[2] The 46 AFC member associations (excluding the associate member Northern Mariana Islands) are ranked based on their national team's and clubs' performance over the last four years in AFC competitions, with the allocation of slots for the 2017 and 2018 editions of the AFC club competitions determined by the 2016 rankings:
- The associations are split into West Zone and East Zone, with 23 associations in each zone:
- West Zone consists of the associations from West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, except India and Maldives
- East Zone consists of the associations from ASEAN and East Asia, plus India and Maldives
- In each zone, there are a total of 12 direct slots in the group stage, with the 4 remaining slots filled through play-offs.
- The top 12 associations in each zone as per the AFC rankings are eligible to enter the AFC Champions League, as long as they fulfill the AFC Champions League criteria.
- The top six associations in each zone get at least one direct slot in the group stage, while the remaining associations get only play-off slots:
- The associations ranked 1st and 2nd each get three direct slots and one play-off slot (in play-off round).
- The associations ranked 3rd and 4th each get two direct slots and two play-off slots (one in play-off round, one in preliminary round 2).
- The associations ranked 5th each get one direct slot and two play-off slots (both in preliminary round 2).
- The associations ranked 6th each get one direct slot and one play-off slot (in preliminary round 2).
- The associations ranked 7th to 12th each get one play-off slot (in preliminary round 1).
- The maximum number of slots for each association is one-third of the total number of clubs in the top division (e.g., Australia can only get a maximum of three total slots as there are only nine Australia-based clubs in the A-League).
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Teams
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
In the following table, the number of appearances and last appearance count only those since the 2002–03 season (including qualifying rounds), when the competition was rebranded as the AFC Champions League.
Schedule
The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).[4] Starting from 2017, matches in the West Zone will be played on Mondays and Tuesdays instead of Tuesdays and Wednesdays.[5]
| Stage | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preliminary stage | Preliminary round 1 | No draw | 24 January 2017 | |
| Preliminary round 2 | 31 January 2017 | |||
| Play-off stage | Play-off round | 7 February 2017 | ||
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | TBA | 20–22 February 2017 | |
| Matchday 2 | 27 February – 1 March 2017 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 13–15 March 2017 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 10–12 April 2017 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 24–26 April 2017 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 8–10 May 2017 | |||
| Knock-out stage | Round of 16 | 22–24 May 2017 | 29–31 May 2017 | |
| Quarter-finals | TBA | 21–23 August 2017 | 11–13 September 2017 | |
| Semi-finals | 25–27 September 2017 | 16–18 October 2017 | ||
| Final | 18 November 2017 | 25 November 2017 | ||
See also
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedranking - ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
- AFC Champions League, the-AFC.com
