User:Quidster4040/sandbox/2017–18 AFC Champions League

The 2017–18 AFC Champions League will be the 53rd season of Asia and Oceania's premier club football tournament organised by AFC, and the 10th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the CONCACAF Champions League.

The winners of the 2017–18 AFC Champions League will qualify as the AFC representative at the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, and also earn the right to play against the winners of the 2017–18 AFC Cup in the 2018 AFC Super Cup.

Association ranking
For the 2016–17 AFC Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2015 AFC country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in Asian competitions from 2011–12 to 2015–16. In this scenario the AFC and OFC merged and affiliate members joined. This scenario also assumed Kurdistan and Tibet have recognized leagues and enter for the first time in their history.

Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below:
 * (CL) – Additional berth for Champions League title holders
 * (AC) – Additional berth for AFC Cup title holders

Distribution
The table below shows the default access list.

Qualifying rounds

 * Main article: 2017–18 AFC Champions League qualifying phase

First qualifying round

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Second qualifying round

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Third qualifying round

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Fourth qualifying round
The first legs were played on 25 July 2017 and the second legs were played on 2 August 2017.



!colspan="5"|Champions Route

!colspan="5"|League Route


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Play-off round


!colspan="5"|Champions Route

!colspan="5"|League Route


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Group stage

 * Main page: 2017–18 AFC Champions League group stage

The draw for the group stage was be held on 24 August 2017, at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre in Singapore. The 32 teams are drawn into eight groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other. For the draw, the teams are seeded into four pots based on the following principles (introduced starting 2015–16 season):


 * Pot 1 contains the title holders and the champions of the top seven associations based on their 2016 AFC country coefficients. If the title holders are one of the champions of the top seven associations, the champions of the association ranked eighth are also seeded into Pot 1.
 * Pot 2, 3 and 4 contain the remaining teams, seeded based on their 2016 AFC club coefficients.

In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 16, while the third-placed teams enter the 2017–18 AFC Cup round of 32. The matchdays are 14 September, 28 September, 19 October, 2 November, 23 November, and 7 December 2017.