The East Asian Football Federation ( EAFF ), founded on 28 May 2002, is an international governing body of association football in East Asia .
31-740: EAFF has 10 member associations. All of them are members of the Asian Football Confederation , including the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association , which is an associate member of the AFC (previously an associated member of the Oceania Football Confederation ) until its full membership was approved in December 2020. The Palau Football Association was being considered as a possible future member of
62-399: A centralised Finals tournament. 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. Teams from 24 AFC countries have reached
93-533: 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 . 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
124-820: Is the AFC Women's Champions League which was launched in the 2024–25 season. The second-tier men's tournament is the AFC Champions League Two , while the third-tier tournament is the AFC Challenge League , which were both revamped and rebranded in 2024. AFC runs an annual Asian futsal club tournament, the AFC Futsal Club Championship for futsal club competition. FIFA Men's World Ranking FIFA Women's World Ranking World Football Elo Ratings for AFC members: The AFC Club Competitions Ranking ranks its member associations by results in
155-835: Is the governing body of association football , beach soccer , and futsal in most countries and territories in Asia . The AFC was formed in 1954. It has 47 members. The Asian Ladies Football Confederation (ALFC) was the section of AFC that managed women's association football in Asia. The group was independently founded in April 1968 in a meeting involving Taiwan , British Hong Kong , Malaysia and Singapore . In 1986, ALFC merged with AFC. Notes The AFC has 47 member associations split into five subregions : Central (four Soviet Central Asian countries plus Afghanistan and Iran ), East (eight East Asian nations and two Micronesian territories: Guam and
186-590: The ACL Elite ) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation , and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs . It is the most prestigious club competition in Asian football, played by the national league champions (and, for some nations, one or more runners-up) of their national associations. Introduced in 1967 as the Asian Champion Club Tournament ,
217-658: The FIFA Intercontinental Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup , and also for the next edition of the AFC Champions League Elite league stage if they have not already qualified through their domestic performance. The most successful club in the competition is Al-Hilal with a total of four titles. Al Ain are the current champions, having beaten Yokohama F. Marinos in the 2024 final . The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) first discussed launching
248-474: The Iranian government . In 2019, Iranian women were first allowed to watch football at stadiums, but not during ACL games. Before that, FIFA had pressured Iran to let women into the stadiums; Iran relented, but capped the number of women to watch the 2018 final . In 2021, the AFC investigated the matter, in the hope of allowing unrestricted attendance whenever Iranian clubs are involved. On 23 December 2022,
279-644: The Northern Mariana Islands ), South (five countries on the Indian Subcontinent plus Maldives and Sri Lanka ), South East (ten ASEAN countries plus Australia and East Timor ), and West (twelve Arab countries ). Afghanistan , Burma (Myanmar) , the Republic of China , Hong Kong , India , Indonesia , Israel , Japan , Pakistan , the Philippines , Singapore , South Korea , and Vietnam were
310-507: The ACL Elite. In December 2023, Saudi Arabia were awarded hosting duties for the final stage for the first two seasons. 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
341-529: The AFC Champions League Elite is determined annually through criteria as set by the AFC Competitions Committee. 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
SECTION 10
#1733085348294372-519: 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
403-494: The AFC Pro-League Committee. The assessment criteria and ranking for participating associations are revised by AFC every two years. 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
434-447: 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
465-599: The AFC competitions. Rankings are calculated by AFC. Listed here are the top 30 countries. Rankings are calculated by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW). a number between brackets is the rank of the previous week. (*)= Provisional ranking (played at least 10 matches). For each tournament, the flag of the host country and the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown. * Australia qualified for FIFA WC for six times, two as OFC member and four as AFC member. Notes: AFC Champions League Elite The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as
496-505: The Asian Club Championship and Asian Cup Winners' Cup playing against each other. 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
527-919: The Asian qualifying tournament for the FIFA World Cup and for football at the Summer Olympics . The top-ranked AFC tournament for men's association football clubs is the AFC Champions League Elite . The competition is an amalgamation of the Asian Club Championship , the Asian Cup Winners' Cup and the Asian Super Cup and gathers the top teams from the highest-ranked nations in Asia (the number of teams depend on that country's ranking and can be upgraded or downgraded). The top-ranked AFC tournament for women's association football clubs
558-430: The association in 2009. Northern Mariana Islands national football team was a provisional member from December 2006 to September 2008. Rankings are calculated by FIFA . Rankings are calculated by FIFA . For each tournament, the flag of the host country and the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown. Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation ( AFC )
589-403: The competition for 14 years, while Israel would be expelled from the AFC in 1974. Asia's premier club tournament made its return in 1985 as the Asian Club Championship. 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
620-401: The competition rebranded as AFC Champions League in 2002 following the merger of the Asian Club Championship, the Asian Cup Winners' Cup and the Asian Super Cup . It was rebranded again in 2024 to its current name. A total of 24 clubs compete in the league stage of the competition, divided into East and West regions (12 teams each). The winner of the AFC Champions League Elite qualifies for
651-427: The competition. 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). 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
SECTION 20
#1733085348294682-434: 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. 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
713-519: 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). By 2021, the various problems with the Iranian sides were attracting media attention; international Arabic and English-language media reported the violation of women's rights in the stadiums of Iranian sides. On top of that, Iranian women were banned from football stadiums for about 40 years, by
744-411: 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 : 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
775-525: The founding members. National teams: Esports Clubs: Defunct National teams: Clubs: AFC runs the AFC Asian Cup and the AFC Women's Asian Cup , which are held every 4 years. AFC organises the AFC Futsal Asian Cup , AFC Women's Futsal Asian Cup , AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup , various age-level international association football, youth futsal tournaments and
806-418: 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. Starting with the 2024–25 season, the distribution of
837-470: 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. 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. The AFC has also confirmed that AFC Champions League records and statistics would be carried forward to
868-401: The prize money is as follows: 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 Official Global Supporters The current license holder for the AFC Champions League video game is Konami with the eFootball series. The license also includes
899-420: 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. 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,
930-502: 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
961-478: 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. 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