AFC Champions League Elite

The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as 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, 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 the FIFA Intercontinental Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.

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.

1967–1972: Asian Champion Club Tournament
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) first discussed launching 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 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:
 * In 1970, Lebanese club Homenetmen refused to play Hapoel Tel Aviv in the semi-final, which was scratched with Hapoel advancing to the final.
 * In 1971, Aliyat Al-Shorta of Iraq refused to play Maccabi Tel Aviv on three occasions: in the preliminary round (which was redrawn), in the group stage, and then in the final, which was scratched with Maccabi being awarded the championship. During the award ceremony for Maccabi, Aliyat Al-Shorta players waved the Palestinian flag around the field, with a match being arranged by the AFC and the Thai FA between Maccabi and a Combined Bangkok team in lieu of the final. The Iraqi media considered Aliyat Al-Shorta as the tournament's winners, with the team holding an open top bus parade in Baghdad.

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 the competition for 14 years, while Israel would be expelled from the AFC in 1974.

1985–2002: Return as the Asian Club Championship
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 the Asian Club Championship and Asian Cup Winners' Cup playing against each other.

2002–2024: AFC Champions League
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 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 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.

Expansion
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 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 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 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 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, 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).

Women's rights in Iranian football
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 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.

2024–25 onwards: AFC Champions League Elite
On 23 December 2022, 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 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 the ACL Elite. In December 2023, Saudi Arabia has been awarded hosting duties for the final stage for the first two seasons.

Qualification


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 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 the competition.

Tournament
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 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.

Allocation
Teams from 24 AFC countries have reached 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.

Prize money
Starting with the 2024–25 season, the distribution of the prize money is as follows.


 * League stage: $800,000
 * Round of 16: $200,000
 * Quarter-finals: $400,000
 * Semi-finals: $600,000
 * Runners-up: $4,000,000
 * Champions: $10,000,000

Sponsorship
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
 * Neom
 * Qatar Airways
 * Visit Saudi

Official Global Supporters
 * Konami
 * Molten

Official Regional Partner
 * Visa (West Asia only)

Video game
The current license holder for the AFC Champions League video game is Konami with the eFootball series. The license also includes the competing teams.

Performances by region
Note: Israeli clubs, winners of the 1967, 1969 and 1971 editions, are not included.