Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: In a bid to bring stability to the AFC Champions League, the Joint Meeting of the AFC Adhoc Committee for Professional Football, which was convened on Sunday, made several decisions for a three-year period starting 2014.
At the outset, AFC Acting President Zhang Jilong appreciated the contribution from members of these committees and hoped that Asian football will attain high level of professionalism in the future.
“I would like to stress that our work is not finished yet and we need to work harder to achieve professionalism,” he said.
“These committees have done a great job and I would like to appreciate all the members for their focus on the development of Asian football. All the members shared their experiences of national associations, leagues and clubs to help our club competitions prosper.”
The committee decided not to give an automatic slot in the group stage of the AFC Champions League to the defending champions and approved to maintain the home-and-away format of ACL Round of 16 for the next three years. It was also decided to propose a one-off final of the AFC Champions League from 2014-2016.
The members also decided to keep the ticketing policy for AFC Champions League final for the next three years where the host club will get 70 per cent of the revenue while 20 per cent will be given to the visiting club. The remaining 10 per cent will be provided for AFC’s Social Responsibility Legacy Programme.
The synchronisation of ACL and AFC Club Licensing criteria was also approved by the committee apart from finalising the ACL points re-distribution for the period of 2014-2016.
The members also discussed points calculation for technical standard in AFC Cup.
All decisions of this committee need to be ratified by the AFC Competitions Committee and later by the AFC Executive Committee to take effect.