Football: Asian Champions League set for shake-up with fewer teams, more money, and women’s competition in 2024-25 season
- Regional body announces that a huge shake-up is coming for Asia’s continental club competitions next year
- AFC Champions League Elite headlines new three-tier set-up, with three-fold increase in prize money for winners
The Asian Football Confederation will revamp its continental club competitions next year with an increased prize fund and will also launch an Asian Women’s Champions League, the regional body announced on Monday.
Kicking off in September 2024, the leading 24 club sides from across the continent will play in the new AFC Champions League Elite, with the winners earning US$12 million.
That sum is a three-fold increase in the maximum amount available to previous winners of the competition.
The AFC Champions League Elite headlines a new three-tier set-up and replaces the existing format, in which clubs compete in either the AFC Champions League or the secondary AFC Cup.
The three new competitions will feature a total of 76 teams from across Asia, with 32 teams also taking part in the AFC Champions League 2 while a third strand, to be called the AFC Challenge League, will be comprised of 20 clubs.
“Today the AFC is embarking on a new and historic era with these forward-looking initiatives in both men’s and women’s Asian club football,” AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said in a statement.
