2023–24 AFC Champions League

The 47 AFC member associations are ranked based on their clubs' performance over the last four years in AFC competitions (their national team's FIFA World Rankings no longer considered).[3] The slots are allocated by the following criteria according to the Entry Manual:[4]

• The associations are split into two regions (Article 3.1):
  • West Region consists of the 25 associations from the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF), the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF), and the Central Asian Football Association (CAFA).
  • East Region consists of the 22 associations from the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF).
  • The AFC may reallocate one or more associations to another region if necessary for sporting reasons.
• The top 12 associations in each region are eligible to enter the AFC Champions League.
• In each region, there are five groups in the group stage, including 16 direct slots, with the 4 remaining slots filled through qualifying play-offs (Article 3.2). The slots in each region are distributed as follows:[5][6]
  • The associations ranked 1st and 2nd are each allocated three direct slots and one play-off slot.
  • The associations ranked 3rd and 4th are each allocated two direct slots and two play-off slots.
  • The associations ranked 5th are each allocated one direct slot and two play-off slots.
  • The associations ranked 6th are each allocated one direct slot and one play-off slot.
  • The associations ranked 7th to 10th are each allocated one direct slot.
  • The associations ranked 11th and 12th are each allocated one play-off slot.
• The AFC Champions League title holders and AFC Cup title holders are each allocated one play-off slot should they not qualify for the tournament through domestic performance (Article 3.6). The following rules are applied:
  • If the AFC Champions League title holders or AFC Cup title holders are from associations ranked 1st to 6th, their association is allocated the same number of play-off slots, and they replace the lowest-seeded team from their association. Otherwise, their association is allocated one additional play-off slot, and they do not replace any team from their association (Articles 3.8, 3.9 and 3.10).
  • If both the AFC Champions League title holders and AFC Cup title holders are from the same association which is allocated only one play-off slot, their association is allocated one additional play-off slot, and only the lowest-seeded team from their association is replaced as a result (Article 3.11).
  • The AFC Champions League title holders and AFC Cup title holders are the lowest-seeded teams in the qualifying play-offs if they do not replace any team from their association (Article 3.12).
• If any association ranked 1st to 6th do not fulfill any one of the AFC Champions League criteria, they have all their direct slots converted into play-off slots. The direct slots given up are redistributed to the highest eligible association by the following criteria (Articles 3.13 and 3.14):
  • For each association, the maximum number of total slots is four and the maximum number of direct slots is three (Articles 3.4 and 3.5).
  • If any association ranked 3rd to 6th is allocated one additional direct slot, one play-off slot is annulled and not redistributed.
  • If any association ranked 5th to 6th is allocated two additional direct slots, one play-off slot is annulled and not redistributed.
• If any association ranked 7th to 10th do not fulfill any one of the AFC Champions League criteria, they have their direct slot converted into play-off slot. The direct slot given up is redistributed to the next association ranked 11th or 12th, whose play-off slot is annulled and not redistributed, or if neither are eligible, the highest eligible association by the same criteria as mentioned above (Articles 3.16 and 3.17).
• If any association with only play-off slot(s), including any association ranked 11th to 12th or those mentioned above, do not fulfill the minimum AFC Champions League criteria, the play-off slot(s) are annulled and not redistributed (Articles 3.19 and 3.20).
• For each association, the maximum number of total slots is one-third of the total number of eligible teams (excluding foreign teams) in the top division (Article 3.4). If this rule is applied, any direct slots given up are redistributed by the same criteria as mentioned above, and play-off slots are annulled and not redistributed (Article 9.10).
• All participating teams must be granted an AFC Champions League license, and apart from cup winners, finish in the top half of their top division (Articles 7.1 and 9.5). If any association do not have enough teams which satisfy this criteria, any direct slots given up are redistributed by the same criteria as mentioned above, and play-off slots are annulled and not redistributed (Article 9.9).
• If any team granted a license refuses to participate, their slot, either direct or play-off, is annulled and not redistributed (Article 9.11).

Association ranking

For the 2023–24 AFC Champions League, the associations are allocated slots according to their AFC Club Competitions Ranking which was published on 24 November 2021,[7][8][9] which takes into account their performance in the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup during the period between 2013 and 2021 and their domestic league.[lower-alpha 1]

Participation for 2023–24 AFC Champions League
	Participating
	Not participating

West Region (5 groups) Rank Member Association Points[8] Slots Group stage Play-off Region AFC Play-off round Prelim. round 1 1  Saudi Arabia 100.000 3 1 0 2 4  Iran 77.792 3 1 0 3 5  Qatar 75.131 2 2 0 4 6  Uzbekistan 64.712 2 1 1 5 8  United Arab Emirates 52.588 1 0 2 6 10  Jordan 46.131 1 0 1 7 12  Tajikistan 37.323 1 0 0 8 13  Iraq 35.223 1 0 0 9 16  Turkmenistan 27.871 1 0 0 10 17  India 25.290 1 0 0 11 18  Lebanon 23.618 0 0 1 12 21  Bangladesh 19.452 0 0 1 Total Participating associations: 12 16 5 6 11 27

East Region (5 groups) Rank Member Association Points[8] Slots Group stage Play-off Region AFC Play-off round Prelim. round 1 2  South Korea 95.462 3 1 0 2 3  Japan 93.412 3 1 0 3 7  China PR 59.948 2 2 0 4 9  Thailand 51.920 2 2 0 5 11  Hong Kong[HKG] 40.925 1 0 1 6 14  Vietnam 34.937 1 0 1 7 15  North Korea 32.286 1 0 0 8 19  Philippines 23.080 1 0 0 9 20  Malaysia 21.087 1 0 0 10 23  Australia 17.277 1 0 0 11 24  Singapore 17.016 0 0 1 12 26  Indonesia 15.960 0 0 1 Total Participating associations: 12 16 6 4 11 27

Notes

1. ^
   Hong Kong (HKG): The top division run by the Hong Kong Football Association, the Hong Kong Premier League, only had seven Hong-Kong-based teams in the 2021–22 season, so Hong Kong could only get a maximum of two total slots (Entry Manual 9.10).[4]

The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:

• 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th: League positions of the 2022/2022–23 season (unless shown otherwise)
• CW: Domestic cup winners of the 2022/2022–23 season (unless shown otherwise)
• PR: Premier, regular-season winner
• PW: End-of-season play-off winner
• TBC: To be confirmed

The tournament is divided into West Region (WR) and East Region (ER).

Qualified teams for 2023–24 AFC Champions League

Entry round		Teams
Group stage	WR
		(1st)	(CW)	(1st 21–22)	[Note TBC]
		[Note TBC]	[Note TBC]	[Note TBC]	[Note TBC]
		(1st)	(CW)	[Note TBC]	(1st)
		(1st)	[Note TBC]	(1st)	(PW)
	ER
		(1st)	(CW)	(2nd)	(1st)
		(CW)	(2nd)	(1st)	(CW)
		[Note TBC]	[Note TBC]	[Note HKG][Note TBC]	(1st)
		(1st)	(1st)	(1st)	[Note TBC]
Play-off round
	WR	(CW 21–22)	[Note TBC]	[Note TBC]	[Note TBC]
		(2nd)
	ER	(3rd)	(3rd)	(2nd)	(3rd)
		[Note TBC]	[Note TBC]
Preliminary round
	WR	(3rd)	[Note TBC]	[Note TBC]	(CW)
		[Note TBC]	[Note TBC]
	ER	[Note HKG][Note TBC]	(CW)	(1st)	[Note TBC]

Notes

• 2023–24 AFC Cup

• Official website