The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has officially announced the details and mechanism for the 2026–2027 AFC Champions League Elite league stage draw. The ceremony will take place on Tuesday, August 18, in Kuala Lumpur, featuring an expanded format with 32 clubs participating for the first time since the tournament’s restructuring—confirming Al Sharq Al-Awsat’s previous exclusive report on the upcoming changes.
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The tournament will feature 16 clubs in the West Region and 16 in the East Region, divided into four pots per region. Each team will play eight matches against eight different opponents, split evenly with four home and four away fixtures.
In the West Region, Pot 1 includes defending champions Al Ahli (Saudi Arabia), alongside Al Ain (UAE), Al Sadd (Qatar), and Esteghlal (Iran). Pot 2 features Al Nassr (Saudi Arabia), Neftchi (Uzbekistan), Air Force Club (Iraq), and Shabab Al Ahli (UAE). Pot 3 includes Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia), Al Gharafa (Qatar), Tractor (Iran), and Al Wasl (UAE). Pot 4 comprises Al Qadsiah (Saudi Arabia), Al Shamal (Qatar), Al Ittihad (Saudi Arabia), and Pakhtakor (Uzbekistan).
The AFC revealed that the draw will not individually select eight opponents for each club. Instead, it will rely on a fixed draw grid consisting of four columns: A, B, C, and D for the West Region. Pot 1 teams will be drawn into positions A1, B1, C1, and D1, followed by Pot 2 teams into A2, B2, C2, and D2, with the same procedure applied to Pots 3 and 4.
Once a club's position on the grid is established, its eight fixtures are determined automatically: it will host the four clubs in the column to its right and play away against the four clubs in the column to its left. For instance, a club in Column B will host the four teams in Column C and travel to face the four teams in Column A. The grid's ends will be connected so that Column A teams host Column B teams and play Column D teams away.
The AFC also confirmed the application of country protection principles, ensuring clubs from the same national association are not placed in adjacent columns to prevent them from playing against each other during the league stage. Furthermore, sporting fairness principles will be enforced to limit repeating home/away match patterns between clubs of specific national associations, with custom draw software managing these constraints to prevent deadlocks.
In the East Region, the same mechanism will apply using Columns E, F, G, and H, featuring prominent clubs led by Kashima Antlers, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Buriram United, Shanghai Port, Vissel Kobe, and Pohang Steelers.
The top eight teams from each region will advance to the Round of 16, scheduled for March 1–17, 2027. The tournament will then transition to a centralized final stage in Saudi Arabia, covering the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final from April 23 to May 1, 2027.
Saudi Arabia's Al Ahli enters the new edition as the defending champions, seeking an unprecedented achievement of winning the title for the third consecutive time in a tournament featuring eight former champions alongside them.
