2025–26 AFC Challenge League

2025–26 AFC Challenge League
Tournament details
TeamsCompetition proper: 20 (from 27 associations)
2026–27 →

The 2025–26 AFC Challenge League will be the 12th edition of the Asia's third-tier continental club football competition, organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the second under the AFC Challenge League title.[1][2] The winner will be given a direct slot for the 2026–27 AFC Champions League Two group stage, if they haven't already qualified through their domestic performance.

Association team allocation

The associations are allocated slots according to their club competitions ranking which was published after the 2023–24 competitions were completed.[3][4]

Participation for 2025–26 AFC Challenge League
Participating
Not participating

Teams

Notes
  1. ^
    Turkmenistan (TKM): Arkadag could not qualify for the Champions League 2, as they only have an AFC Challenge League license.

See also

Notes

References

  1. ^ "Asian Champions League to relaunch with fewer teams and more prize money in 2024–25 season". AP News. August 14, 2023.
  2. ^ "AFC Executive Committee approves biggest prize purse in Asian club football history from 2024/25; announces AFC Women's Champions League". the-AFC.
  3. ^ "AFC Club Competitions Ranking". the-afc.com. Asian Football Confederation. Archived from the original on 2022-01-07. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
  4. ^ "AFC Club Competitions Ranking 2024". FootyRankings. 26 May 2024. Retrieved 26 May 2024.