AFC Cup-Cedar Herald Index

The AFC Cup is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The competition is played primarily between clubs from nations that did not receive direct qualifying slots to the top-tier AFC Champions League, based on the AFC Club Competitions Ranking.

Al-Kuwait SC and Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya are the most successful clubs in the competition's history, having won three titles each. Clubs from Kuwait have won four titles, making them the most successful nation in the competition. The tournament has been dominated by clubs from West Asia, with the only winners from outside that region being Uzbek side FC Nasaf in 2011 and Malaysian side Johor Darul Ta'zim in 2015.

AFC Cup

Al-Seeb are the current champions after defeating Kuala Lumpur City in the 2022 final. Since the 2021 season, the team who wins the AFC Cup are granted qualification to the following season's AFC Champions League qualifying playoffs should they not qualify through their domestic performance.

AFC Cup

The AFC Cup is set to be discontinued after the end of the 2023–24 season, with the AFC Champions League 2 and AFC Challenge League being introduced as Asia's new second and third-tier competitions.

AFC Cup

History

The AFC Cup began in 2004 as a second-tier competition to relate back to the AFC Champions League as 14 countries that had developing status competed in the first competition with 18 teams being nominated. Group A, B, C had West and Central Asian teams while the other two groups had east and South East Asia. The winners and three runners-up would then head to the knock-out stage where it was a random draw in who was going to play. Al-Jaish took the first AFC Cup after they defeated fellow Syrian opponents Al-Wahda on away goals.

In 2005, 18 teams competed from nine nations with the nations still being allowed to choose from one or two teams entering. After Syrian teams left the AFC Cup to try at the Champions League for four years, Al-Faisaly defeated Nejmeh in the final. With it, Jordanian teams would win the next two AFC Cup seasons with Bahrain joining the league while Bangladesh was relegated to the AFC President's Cup until the tournament's abolition in 2014.

Al-Muharraq would break the trend in 2008 as they competed in the last two-legged final before it headed back into a one-leg system which still runs to this day.

On 23 December 2022, it was announced that the AFC competition structure would change from the established formats from the 2024–25 season. Under the new plans, the AFC Cup will be discontinued, and a new second-tier tournament called the AFC Champions League 2 will be introduced. Meanwhile, a new third-tier competition will also be launched under the name AFC Challenge League.

Format

Some changes were applied in terms of teams and format for the 2017 AFC Cup. A total of 36 teams participate in the group stage (12 each from West Asia and ASEAN, and 4 each from East Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia). The final will be played as a one-off match.

Allocation

Teams from 34 AFC countries have reached the group stage of the AFC Cup. The allocation of those teams by member country is listed below; asterisks represent occasions where at least one team was eliminated in qualification for the group stage. 41 AFC countries have had teams participate in qualification (including Brunei and Timor-Leste who made their debuts in 2020), those who have not reached the group stage but have only played in qualification are not bolded.

Prize money

The prize money for the 2021 AFC Cup:

Marketing

Sponsorship

Like the AFC Champions League, the AFC Cup is sponsored by a group of multinational corporations, in contrast to the single main sponsor typically found in national top-flight leagues.