According to Sports Weekly reporter Ma Dexing, on October 16, the 2021 AFC Champions League quarterfinals have ended, the Chinese Super League club was eliminated early in the group stage, and the Korean club has successfully reached the final of the East Asian region, which makes the point gap in the AFC member associations on the technical points ranking table of the Chinese Super League further widened, and the ranking has further declined. In November this year, when the AFC determines the allocation of seats in the AFC Champions League in the next cycle, the number of seats in the Chinese Super League will change from the original "3+1" to "2+2".
According to the AFC plan, in November this year, the AFC Competition Committee will meet to determine the allocation of seats in the AFC Champions League for the next cycle. Previously, the AFC used a two-year cycle to determine the allocation of seats in the next AFC Champions League two years in advance, and the allocation of seats was based on the conversion of member association club teams' achievements in the past four years into technical points. The allocation of seats for this cycle like 2021 and 2022 was determined as early as the meeting of the AFC Competition Committee in November 2019.
Moreover, at this meeting at the end of November 2019, the AFC Competition Committee is also ready to adjust the basis for the allocation of seats in the AFC Champions League, starting from 2023, converting the results of the previous year into technical points, and determining the allocation of seats in turn. However, the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020 has completely disrupted all the plans, and the plan to determine the allocation of seats for the next year cannot be carried out, because the group stage adopts a centralized meeting system and cannot reflect the true level of each team. Therefore, at last year's competition committee meeting, the AFC decided to maintain the original distribution basis, that is, the results of the past four years were converted into technical points, and also decided not to calculate the 2020 AFC Champions League results, and by November 2021, the two-year cycle would be changed to a yearly cycle. After the epidemic situation has completely improved, it will be readjusted.
It is precisely because of this that at the meeting of the AFC Competition Committee held at the end of November this year, only the allocation of seats in the AFC Champions League for the year 2023 was determined, and by the end of 2022, according to the global epidemic situation, how to determine the allocation of seats in the AFC Champions League will be reconsidered.
In fact, it is precisely because it continues to be converted into technical points according to the results of the AFC Champions League in the past four years, and in this way to determine the allocation of seats in the 2023 AFC Champions League, which makes it not surprising that the Chinese Super League will win "2+2" seats, that is, the 2022 Chinese Super League champions and FA Cup champions will directly enter the group stage; the league runners-up will participate in the third round of play-offs, home games; the third place in the league will participate in the second round of qualifications, the home game, after winning the third round of play-offs. And it's an away game. If only the results of the 2021 AFC Champions League are counted, the two teams of the Chinese Super League, Beijing Guoan and Guangzhou, have only achieved 1 draw and 11 defeats in 12 group matches, which will fall out of the top 24 places in the whole of Asia, and they will not even qualify for the AFC Champions League, and can only participate in the AFC's second-tier club competition , the AFC Cup.
At the beginning of 2021, when the AFC Champions League has not yet begun, the Chinese Super League is still ranked first in Asia on the technical points ranking table of the AFC member associations. However, after the end of this year's AFC Champions League group stage, due to the poor performance of the two Chinese Super League clubs and the elimination of Shanghai Harbor in the third round of play-offs, the Chinese Super League fell to sixth place. Although the Uzbek club has also been eliminated early in the AFC Champions League, because Nassaf has reached the final four in the AFC Cup and is still constantly gaining technical points, it has overtaken the Chinese Super League, which has fallen to seventh place.
(Reported by Ma Dexing, all-media reporter of Sports Weekly)