AFC Champions League - last updated on 16 January 2009
(Courtesy of Johnny Beaufays)
Competition name: AFC Champions League
Foundation: 2002
Continent: Asia
Website: www.the-afc.com
A bit of history:
The AFC Champions League is the current annual Asian club football competition hosted by Asian Football Confederation (AFC). In normal circumstances, 32 top clubs from fourteen Asian countries along with the defending champions competed in the tournament.
Including the results from Asian Champion Club Tournament and Asian Club Championships, seven clubs have won the tournament twice; Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Esteghlal F.C., Al-Hilal, Thai Farmers Bank FC, Pohang Steelers, Suwon Samsung Bluewings and Al Ittihad.
The competition started as the Asian Champion Club Tournament back in 1967. Eight domestic champions from eight Asian leagues competed in the inaugural season. With the exception of 1968 season, the tournament was held annually until 1971. During this first four editions, two Israeli clubs from Tel Aviv took three championships. In 1972, the tournament canceled due to a lack of interests which eventually resulted in withdrawals of most participants except for two clubs. The tournament was not held for next fourteen years. This also because professionalism in Asian club football did not start till late 90s and early 2000s.
Using old European Cup as a model, the tournament returned to Asia during the 1985/86 season with a new name, Asian Club Championship. Entry was restricted to the domestic champions of certain Asian leagues. Even so, few withdrawal were seen from year to year. From 1990, AFC introduced Asian Cup Winners Cup which, as the name suggest, was also restricted to domestic cup winners. The winners of these two Asian tournaments then played at the Asian Super Cup.
From 2002/03 season the three major Asian tournaments, Asian Champions Cup, Asian Cup Winners Cup, and Asian Super Cup was merged into one larger competition and was re-branded as AFC Champions League. In the previous years, the domestic champions and cup winners were sorted into two different continental tournaments, but now both domestic champions and cup winners enter into one competition. In the first edition, after several qualifying round, a total of sixteen clubs participated. The 2003/04 season was canceled due to SARS virus and the War in Iraq. The tournament was re-launched in 2004 season with 28 clubs from fourteen countries. In the current format, these 28 clubs are divided into 7 groups of four and plays double round-robin (home and away). The seven group winners along with defending champions qualifies to the quarter-final. Quarter-final, semi-final, and finals are two-legged series, with away goal, extra time, and penalties are used as tie-breaker. The 2007 draw also saw clubs from Australia's Hyundai A-League competition participate.
The champions league will be expanded to 32 clubs and entry will be limited to the top eleven Asian leagues. Each country will receive up to 4 slots depending on the strength of their league, league structure (professionalism), marketability, financial status and other criteria set out by the AFC Pro-League committee. New developments has suggested that the AFC Cup winner and runners-up will also to play in the qualifying rounds to determine which teams will participate in the group stage. The group round will be conducted in the same manner as the 2002/03-2008 edition; however, the only difference is that the eight group winners and eight runners-up will qualify to the round of 16.
Competition crests: (roll on the crest to get more informations)
AFC Champions League -
2002-
