August 15 – The Asian Soccer Confederation (AFC) has radically revamped its males’s membership competitors construction into three new tiers, in addition to launching a Girls’s Champions League and boosting prize cash throughout the competitions to document ranges.
The brand new competitions will take impact from the 2024-25 season and can see the AFC’s high 24 golf equipment compete within the AFC Champions League Elite (ACLE), whereas the 32-team second tier will probably be often called the AFC Champions League 2 (ACL2) and the third tier will see 20 golf equipment compete within the AFC Problem League (ACGL).
The ACLE will probably be divided into 12 groups throughout the West and East areas competing in a league format with 4 house and 4 away matches towards eight completely different golf equipment inside its area.
The highest eight sides from each areas – 16 in complete – will advance to the Spherical of 16 knockout stage, which will probably be performed in a house and away format.
The ACLE champions will win $12 million (up from the present $4 million for this season). The shedding finalist will obtain $6 million (up from $2 million). The AFC mentioned that “each the ACL2 and ACGL will see boosts throughout the board in prize fund and advantages”.
Whereas the AFC is boosting its males’s membership championships, it’s also accelerating its girls’s membership competitions having organised two pilot AFC Girls’s Membership Championship in 2021 and 2022 with a 3rd version scheduled to happen later this yr.
The brand new AFC Girls’s Champions League will invite all eligible golf equipment from all AFC MAs to take part. A monetary distribution mannequin “will probably be introduced on due course”, mentioned the AFC.
“The AFC Girls’s Champions League is a significant step aligned with our technique to supply a platform to showcase the expertise of ladies gamers on a Continental stage and we’re assured that the competitors will empower girls in Asian soccer, contributing to gender equality and breaking down societal limitations, to make a optimistic impression on the expansion of the ladies’s recreation,” mentioned AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa.
Emphasising the requirement for sustainable and aggressive males’sclub competitions throughout Asia, Shaikh Salman mentioned: “Our membership competitions are already amongst one of the best and most profitable in Continental soccer, and at present the AFC is embarking on a brand new and historic period with these forward-looking initiatives in each males’s and girls’s Asian membership soccer.
“The AFC has outlined its ambitions to make sure our groups and gamers proceed to shine by world-class competitions and a significant a part of this ambition is anchored on our promise to reinvest in our competitions, which is the lifeblood of improvement for all our Member Associations.
“The AFC has all the time held the idea that we’ve got an obligation to reward success and the rise in prize cash and the journey contributions lately created a long-lasting impression on our golf equipment and we’ve got each religion that the strategic reforms and the brand new funding mannequin will additional increase the depth, stature and high quality of the Asian membership recreation,” added Salman.
Contact the author of this story at moc.l1692092272labto1692092272ofdlr1692092272owedi1692092272sni@n1692092272osloh1692092272cin.l1692092272uap1692092272