AFC Champions League

The AFC Champions League Elite (formerly the AFC Champions League) is the AFC’s premier annual men’s club competition, tracing its roots back to Asia’s club championship launched in 1967. Regulations: 24 clubs take part in the league stage, split into two 12-team regional leagues (West and East), with each club playing 8 matches against 8 different opponents - 4 home and 4 away, and clubs from the same member association do not face each other in the league stage. Teams earn 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw and 0 for a loss, and rankings are decided by points, then goal difference, goals scored and number of wins. The top eight in each region qualify for the knockouts, the round of 16 is played over two legs within each region based on seeding, and if level on aggregate extra time and penalties are used in the second leg. From the quarter-finals onward the competition moves into a centralised Finals phase played as single matches with cross-regional pairings, using extra time and penalties if required.