Read the AFC Champions League reform in one article: move closer to the Champions League! Swiss round + prize money skyrocketed What is the impact of the Super League 4 teams

Nian Zhou

2024-05-16 14:28Posted in Shandong Premier League commentator, Tencent Football Special Writer and creator in the field of sports

The AFC officially announced the official launch of the three-level club competition, which is fully closer to UEFA, and next, we will interpret it in detail.

The two-level system was restructured into three levels

The existing Asian club competition is divided into two divisions, the first being the AFC Champions League (AFC Champion Laegue) and the second being the AFC Cup, which is comparable to the UEFA Champions League before UEFA.

After the restructuring, the club competition became three-tiered:

第一级别:亚冠精英联赛(AFC Champions League Elite

Second Division: AFC Champions League 2

第三级别：亚足联挑战联赛（AFC Challenge League）

It's the same as UEFA's current Champions League + Europa League + UEFA Europa League. In addition, there is the Women's AFC Champions League, which is also aligned with the Women's Champions League.

The group stage was restructured into the Swiss round

Next season's Champions League restructuring will be mainly to expand to 36 teams, and then cancel the group stage and replace it with a "Swiss round" in the league stage. The AFC Champions League Elite League has also cancelled the group stage and replaced it with the "Swiss round".

However, the total number of participating teams has been reduced from 40 to 24, which means that the number of participating teams in East Asia has been reduced from 20 to 12. The so-called "Swiss round", that is, each team plays 8 games, using the winner vs the winner, the loser vs the loser, and the draw is drawn immediately after the end of each round before the opponent for the next round can be determined.

The East Asian league phase runs from mid-September to mid-February, with the top eight teams progressing to the knockout stage, with two-legged matches taking place on March 3-5 and March 10-12 next year.

The four teams that qualified will travel to Saudi Arabia to face the quarterfinals against four teams from the West Asia region, with the final taking place on May 4.

There are 32 teams participating in the AFC Champions League 2 League, but the previous group stage format is still the same, with 16 teams in East Asia divided into 4 groups with 6 rounds of matches each, 1 day later than the AFC Champions League Elite League, the knockout rounds are all next year, and the final is on May 17.

The Challenge League has 20 teams participating, so there are a total of 76 teams participating in the new Level 3 competition.

Bonuses have increased substantially

The winner of the AFC Champions League Elite League has a prize fund of $12 million, which is three times as much as this season ($4 million), and the runners-up also has $4 million, which is twice as much as this season ($2 million). The league stage win bonus, away perks, and promotion to the round of 16 and the last 8 will also be at least doubled.

In addition, the AFC Champions League has also lifted the limit on the number of foreign players, which is also to encourage teams to improve their strength and compete with each other, so as to increase attention and ratings.

What is the impact on the Super League?

According to the rules, a total of 4 teams in the Chinese Super League will play in the "Asian Competition": the champion of the Chinese Super League (Shanghai Port) and the winner of the FA Cup (Shanghai Shenhua) will participate in the AFC Champions League Elite League.

The runner-up of the Chinese Super League (Shandong Taishan) will participate in the AFC Champions League Elite Qualifiers, and if they win, they will advance to the main competition, and if they are out, they will participate in the AFC Champions League 2. The third place in the Chinese Super League (Zhejiang team) directly participates in the AFC Champions League 2-level league. As for the AFC Challenge League, Chinese Super League teams are not required to participate.

Since the AFC Champions League is a cross-year, and the Chinese Super League is not a cross-year, the first 3 match days of the AFC Champions League Elite League in the new season are just the key sprint moments of the Chinese Super League season.

After the end of the Chinese Super League season, there are still teams to continue to participate in the AFC Champions League Elite League and AFC Champions League 2 League stage of the league stage. By the time the Chinese Super League season kicks off in March next year, the AFC Champions League season has entered the knockout stage, which may also cause trouble for the participating teams.

However, the biggest temptation for the Chinese Super League team is the bonus, if a team can qualify from the AFC Champions League elite league and enter the knockout stage, then $1.3 million is guaranteed; If it can enter the quarterfinals like Shandong Taishan, the prize money will exceed 1.7 million. The dividend of the Chinese Super League for a season is 8 million yuan, about 1.1 million US dollars.

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