At 14:00 Beijing time on January 17, the 2022 AFC Champions League group stage drawing ceremony will be held, the group stage opponents of the Chinese Super League teams will be determined, Shandong Taishan, Shanghai Harbor and Guangzhou will directly enter the main tournament, and Changchun Yatai will also need to play in the qualifiers. Considering a variety of factors, whether the Chinese Super League team arranges the main force to play in the AFC Champions League also depends on the arrangement of the Chinese Super League schedule, which is also a point of view.
According to the rules, in the 2022 AFC Champions League, the Chinese Super League is still a 3+1 qualification, the Chinese Super League champion Shandong Taishan, the runner-up Shanghai Haigang and the third place Guangzhou team directly enter the main competition, and the fourth place Changchun Yatai participates in the qualification competition. According to the classification, Shandong Taishan and Shanghai Harbor are first-seeded teams, Guangzhou is a second-gear team, Changchun Yatai has to play the qualifying round, and if it enters the main game, it is a four-gear team.
Due to the performance of the Chinese Super League team in the AFC Champions League in the 2021 season, Guoan and Guangzhou team were arranged to play on the bench, the results were bad, and The harbor was out of the qualifiers and did not perform well. This has led to a reduction in AFC Champions League qualification in the Chinese Super League, which has become a 2+2 quota since the beginning of the 2023 season. Therefore, the 2022 AFC Champions League is still very important to the Chinese Super League, and if the results are still bad, then the AFC Champions League quota may be reduced.
The AFC Champions League has officially confirmed that the group stage competition in the East Asia region is from April 15 to May 1, which is still a centralized format and has a very dense schedule. The 20 teams in the East Asian zone are divided into 5 groups, each of which is the first direct qualifier, and 3 groups with better results are the second out, and the competition is also fierce. The knockout stage is scheduled to take place from August 18 to 25, and the schedule is also very intensive.
For the Chinese Super League teams, the key now lies in how the Chinese Super League schedule is arranged, which also determines whether they will arrange for the main players to play in the AFC Champions League. If the Chinese Super League starts in June, then the Chinese Super League team can still arrange the main force to play in the AFC Champions League, if the league starts in April, the schedule overlaps, the Chinese Super League team can not arrange the main force to play in the AFC Champions League. Yatai will play in the qualifiers first, the time is March 15, the opponent is the winner of the Philippine team Kaya and the Australian Sydney FC, in fact, this is also a test for Yatai, after all, the March game means that they will have to train in February, leaving them not much winter training time.
From the perspective of participating teams, Taishan and Harbor can avoid Jeonbuk Hyundai and Kawasaki forwards, and the second-gear team has become the biggest test for the two teams to qualify, Urawa Red Diamonds, Jeonnam Tenryu and Yokohama Mariners, which are the main potential opponents. The third-gear team is relatively weak, but only the main players of the Chinese Super League can ensure better results, and among the fourth-gear teams, Melbourne City is still not to be underestimated, as long as they avoid them, then the group stage will be relatively relaxed. Guangzhou are a second-gear team, they may face a bigger test, and the future of the team is still unknown, which will have a greater impact on participation in the AFC Champions League.