Accordingly, the AFC online meeting had many important contents, including proposals on the principles of organizing continental football club tournaments under the new structure and the plan to organize the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. President of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) Tran Quoc Tuan also attended and chaired the meeting in his capacity as Head of the AFC Competition Committee.
As previously reported, from the 2024-2025 season onwards, the AFC will apply groundbreaking changes in the organization of club-level tournaments. Accordingly, the playground of Asian clubs will be restructured into 3 levels. Level 1 corresponds to the highest tournament currently, the AFC Champions League (commonly known as the Asian Cup C1), level 2 corresponds to the AFC Cup and level 3 is the tournament for the group of clubs that are not qualified to participate in the above 2 tournaments.
VFF President Tran Quoc Tuan participates in chairing an important meeting of AFC
The level 2 tournament (AFC Cup) includes 32 teams participating in the group stage and also applies the same competition format as the level 1 tournament.
The Level 3 tournament is the latest tournament to be introduced into the Asian club competition system from the 2024-2025 season. This tournament will have 20 participating teams and divided into 5 groups, of which 3 groups are from West Asia and 2 groups are from East Asia. The teams will compete in a round-robin in each group to select 8 teams to advance to the quarter-finals, then the semi-finals and the final. The quarter-finals and semi-finals will be played on a home-away format, while the final will only have one match.
Thus, the restructuring of AFC club competitions will expand the number of clubs participating in the continental arena to 76 teams, at different levels. This will help Asian football both improve the quality of the two leading club tournaments and create opportunities for clubs from countries with developing football.
The classification of clubs will be based on the rankings of the Asian national championships (V-League) at the club level. The Vietnam National Championship (V-League) is ranked 7th in the East Asia region in the 2022 rankings, so Vietnam will not have a place to participate in the level 1 tournament (AFC Champions League) but only 1 direct entry and 1 play-off spot in the level 2 tournament (AFC Cup) in the 2024-2025 season.
For the 2026 World Cup, the AFC Competition Committee has also planned to organize 4 stages of the Asian qualifying round to determine 8.5 places to participate in the World Cup Finals. Round 1 includes teams ranked from 26 to 47 on the FIFA rankings - Asia region. 22 teams are drawn into 11 pairs, playing a knockout match to select 11 teams to continue to Round 2.
Round 2 has a total of 36 teams, including 25 teams ranked from 1 to 25 on the FIFA rankings - Asia region and 11 teams that passed the first qualifying round. The 36 teams will be divided equally into 9 groups, playing home and away round-robin matches. The top two teams in each group (a total of 18 teams) will advance to round 3.
The 18 teams participating in the third round will be divided into 3 groups of 6 teams each, playing home and away matches. The 3 first and second teams in each group will qualify directly for the 2026 World Cup. The 3 third-placed and 3 fourth-placed teams in each group will play the third qualifying round, also known as the Asian play-off round. These 6 teams are divided into 2 groups of 3 teams each. Of which, the 2 group winners of the Asian play-off round will go directly to the 2026 World Cup, while the 2 second-placed teams will play a regional play-off to compete for tickets to the intercontinental play-off round.
For the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers, the AFC has also determined that they will continue to be held in parallel with the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. Accordingly, the 18 teams that make it to the third round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia will directly qualify for the 2027 Asian Cup finals.
The remaining 6 places to participate in the 2027 Asian Cup Finals will be determined through 2 rounds, including the play-off round and round 3 (the final qualifying round of the 2027 Asian Cup). The play-off round includes the 10 losing teams in the 2026 World Cup preliminary round, drawing lots for home-away knockout matches. The 5 winning teams and the best losing team in the 2026 World Cup preliminary round will join the 18 teams ranked 3rd and 4th in the 2026 World Cup second qualifying round, for a total of 24 teams to compete in the final qualifying round. The 24 teams are divided into 6 groups, each group of 4 teams, competing to select the 6 best teams in the 6 groups to win tickets to the 2027 Asian Cup Finals.
The proposals of the AFC Competitions Committee at today's meeting will be sent to the member associations for their comments. Based on the comments from the member associations, the AFC Competitions Committee will make a decision at the next meeting held in July, after which it will be submitted to the AFC Executive Committee for approval.
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