Continental club football
The AFC Champions League Elite
The AFC Champions League Elite is the top club competition in Asian football. Run by the Asian Football Confederation, it brings together the strongest clubs from across Asia, splits them into East and West regional leagues, and reaches its final stages in a centralised knockout tournament at a host venue.
What the AFC Champions League Elite is
The AFC Champions League Elite is the AFC's flagship club competition.
The competition is contested by leading clubs from the Asian Football Confederation's member associations. Asia covers a much wider geographical area than Europe or South America, so the AFC splits the early stages into two regions — East and West — to reduce the amount of long-distance travel that participating clubs face. The regions stay separate in the league phase and round of 16, then meet in the centralised finals.
The AFC's top club competition traces its history back to 1967, under several different names. It was rebranded as the AFC Champions League Elite in 2024 alongside a major format change. The winner is crowned champion of Asia and qualifies for global club football through FIFA competitions, including the FIFA Intercontinental Cup and the wider FIFA Club World Cup qualification cycle.
How the tournament is organised
The competition is split into East and West regions for the league phase, before the regions meet in the centralised finals.
From 2026/27, the league stage has 32 clubs, divided into two regional leagues of 16. East-region clubs come from the AFC's East and ASEAN zones; West-region clubs come from the West, South and Central zones. Each club plays eight league-phase matches against eight different opponents from its own region — four at home and four away. Clubs from the same member association do not play each other in the league phase.
At the end of the league stage, the clubs in each regional league are ranked in a single table. The top eight from each region progress to the round of 16, while the remaining clubs are eliminated. The first two Elite seasons used a smaller 24-club league phase, so older summaries of the competition may refer to two regional leagues of 12.
The knockout stage and centralised finals
The knockout stage uses regional two-legged ties first, followed by single-match finals at a host venue.
Round of 16
The round of 16 is played as two-legged knockout ties within each region. The first-placed team in a region plays the eighth-placed team, second plays seventh, third plays sixth, and fourth plays fifth. The lower-ranked team usually hosts the first leg and the higher-ranked team hosts the second leg.
Quarter-finals onwards
The eight round-of-16 winners move into the centralised finals. From the quarter-finals onwards, all matches are single-leg knockouts played at a host venue chosen by the AFC. The final stage gives the competition a tournament feel, more like a short international finals event than a traditional home-and-away club knockout.
Cross-region meetings
East and West clubs can meet from the quarter-finals onwards. The quarter-final ties are cross-regional and decided by a draw, with clubs from one region paired against clubs from the other. The highest-seeded club from each region is kept apart until the final if both continue to progress.
The final
The final is a single match played at the host venue. Extra time and a penalty shoot-out are used if scores are level after 90 minutes. The winner becomes Asian club champion and earns a place in FIFA's global club competition pathway.
When the competition takes place
The competition runs across the Asian football season.
The league phase is usually played from September to February across the Asian football season. Matches are spread over eight matchdays, normally on midweek nights. The round of 16 follows as two-legged ties, and the centralised finals — quarter-finals, semi-finals and final — are usually played in late April or early May at the host venue.
The competition fits the Asian club calendar rather than one single domestic league calendar. Some major Asian leagues operate on an autumn-to-spring schedule, while others, including the Japanese and Korean top flights, traditionally play across the calendar year. The regional format helps the AFC manage those different calendars as well as the travel demands of a continent-wide competition.
How clubs qualify
AFC member associations are allocated places based on the strength of their clubs in continental competition.
The AFC allocates places using regional club competition rankings. Those rankings are based on the results of clubs from each member association in AFC club competitions over the previous eight relevant sporting seasons, with more recent seasons given greater weight. The rankings determine how many league-stage and preliminary-stage places each association receives in the East and West regions.
The highest-ranked associations receive multiple places, while lower-ranked associations may receive one place or enter through preliminary rounds. Qualification routes vary by country, but places usually go to the strongest domestic league finishers and, in some countries, the main domestic cup winner. Club licensing, eligibility and integrity rules then determine whether nominated clubs can actually take part.
What clubs qualify for
Winning the competition is the route into intercontinental club football for Asian clubs.
The AFC Champions League Elite winner qualifies for the FIFA Intercontinental Cup, the annual competition involving the champions of FIFA's continental confederations. The exact entry point can vary by edition, but the Asian champion represents the AFC against champions from other continents.
The Champions League Elite winner also receives a direct place in the next edition of the AFC Champions League Elite if they have not already qualified through domestic performance. Winners also form part of FIFA's Club World Cup qualification pathway, giving the competition importance beyond Asian football itself.
The most successful clubs
The competition's history includes several eras, so older Asian Club Championship titles are usually counted alongside AFC Champions League and AFC Champions League Elite titles.
Al-Hilal
Four titles, the most of any club. Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia won their titles before the AFC Champions League Elite rebrand, but they remain the benchmark club in the all-time history of Asia's top club competition.
Pohang Steelers and Urawa Red Diamonds
Three titles each. Pohang Steelers of South Korea won in 1997, 1998 and 2009, while Japan's Urawa Red Diamonds won in 2007, 2017 and 2022, making them the strongest Japanese club in the competition's history.
The two-title group
Several clubs have won the competition twice, including Al-Ittihad, Al-Ahli, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Seongnam, Al-Ain, Esteghlal, Al-Sadd, Thai Farmers Bank and Maccabi Tel Aviv. This group reflects the long history of the competition before and after the AFC Champions League name was introduced.
Recent winners
Al-Ain of the United Arab Emirates won the last edition under the old AFC Champions League name in 2024. Al-Ahli of Saudi Arabia won the first two editions under the AFC Champions League Elite name, beating Kawasaki Frontale in 2025 and Machida Zelvia in 2026.
Recent Saudi strength
Saudi clubs have been especially prominent in the recent era, with Al-Hilal, Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli all important names in the competition's history. Historically, South Korean and Japanese clubs have also been among the strongest performers in Asian club football.
A wider field of winners
Clubs from South Korea, Japan, China, Australia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Thailand and Israel have all won the competition or one of its predecessor forms. That breadth reflects how widely the balance of power has shifted across Asian club football.
A short history
The competition has had several names and format changes since it began in 1967.
The competition was first held in 1967 as the Asian Champion Club Tournament, a small knockout competition open to champions of AFC member countries. It was suspended in the early 1970s after political disputes around the participation of certain teams, and resumed in 1986 under the name Asian Club Championship. In 2002, the AFC merged the Asian Club Championship with the Asian Cup Winners' Cup and the Asian Super Cup to create a unified top-tier competition called the AFC Champions League.
The AFC Champions League ran from 2002 to 2024 in various formats, generally featuring a group stage followed by knockout rounds. The 2024 rebrand to the AFC Champions League Elite introduced a regional league phase, a two-legged regional round of 16 and a centralised final stage. The opening Elite format used 24 clubs; from 2026/27, the league stage expanded to 32 clubs while retaining the East-West regional split.
Women's and other AFC competitions
The AFC has launched a women's continental club competition, while youth tournaments sit in a separate national-team structure.
The AFC Women's Champions League launched in 2024 as the equivalent women's club competition for Asia. The first edition was won by Wuhan Jiangda Women's FC of China, who beat Melbourne City on penalties after the final finished level. Like the men's competition, it brings clubs together from across the AFC and narrows the field through group and knockout stages.
The AFC also runs youth national-team tournaments, including the AFC U23 Asian Cup, but those are not junior club versions of the AFC Champions League Elite. They are competitions for national teams rather than academy or under-23 sides of leading Asian clubs.
What to read next
From the AFC Champions League Elite, the natural next step is the intercontinental level above or the broader umbrella.