On October 16th and 17th, 2021, the AFC Champions League Quarter-Finals kicked off on the stage of Saudi Arabia and South Korea respectively, marking a fierce competition between the West Asia Region and the East Asia Region. It is worth mentioning that the Chinese Super League (CSL) team failed to enter the quarterfinals for the first time since 2010, a result that has brought the AFC Champions League's domestic attention to an unprecedented low. This phenomenon seems to be closely related to the end of the "Golden Dollar Era" of the Chinese Super League, and the impact of the epidemic can not be ignored. However, the Chinese Super League teams are faced with a real problem: how will the next year's AFC Champions League? Although the reporter learned from the AFC the general arrangement of the next year's AFC Champions League, but the situation is basically similar to this year.
Centralized system of AFC Champions League matches returns in 2022
With the AFC Champions League celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2022, the AFC had hoped that the tournament would return to full normality, i.e. a return to the home-and-away system. However, the reality of the epidemic has forced the AFC to continue with a centralized system of matches. It has been reported that the AFC's competition section summoned the relevant member associations of the East Asia Region and the West Asia Region via online meetings last month and earlier this month respectively to seek views on the arrangements for next year's AFC Champions League.
On the basis of the successful experience of the 2020 and 2021 AFC Champions League, the AFC Competition Section, in consultation with the Emergency Committee, and taking into account the state of the epidemic across Asia, has made a recommendation that the 2022 AFC Champions League will be the last time that the centralized match system will be used for the group stage, and that the home-and-away system will be fully reinstated from 2023 onwards. Meanwhile, as the World Cup tournament will start in mid-November next year, the AFC Champions League will be brought forward to end in October next year, instead of scheduling it in late November as in previous years, in order to allow the Asian teams to better prepare for the World Cup. In addition, in order to shorten the entire tournament's schedule, the knockout stage will be played in a single-elimination format for all matches instead of a home-and-away system, but there will also be no centralized tournament system for the quarterfinals and semifinals, as was the case this year.
Based on these basic principles, the AFC Competition Section has also come up with a rough schedule of matches. The preliminary schedule for the East Asia Region is March 1, 8 and 15 for the first round, second round qualifiers and third round play-offs respectively. Because the Chinese Super League team next year to compete in the AFC Champions League seat is still "3 +1", this year's third place in the Super League will directly participate in the third round of playoffs on March 15, and will also be home games. This arrangement will not affect the final two rounds of the 12-team tournament on March 24 and 29 next year. The reason why the AFC scheduled the qualifiers and play-offs for the AFC Champions League in mid- to early-March is to avoid clashes with the Final 12. Of course, if a national team chooses to train for an extended period of time, the AFC will have no control over that.
The East Asian region group stage arrangement is initially set to open on April 15 or 16, to April 30 or May 1 end, a total of six rounds of matches, lasting half a month. The first round of qualifying matches for the West Asia Region is scheduled for March 15 of the following year, and then to make way for the 12-team tournament, the second round of qualifying matches as well as the third round of play-off matches will be scheduled for April 5 and 19 of the following year; the group stage will start on May 11 or 12, and will end on May 26 or 27, the group stage.
