The Asian Champions League will resume in hubs in September and October with a single match deciding the title in December, the Asian Football Confederation said on Thursday.
The continent’s elite club competition, which was suspended in early March because of the novel coronavirus outbreak, will resume first in West Asia on September 14 and in East Asia on October 16 at centralized venues as yet to be confirmed. While group matches will be played in round-robin format as originally planned.
The biggest change in this tournament is related to the latter stages of the tournament from the round of 16 onwards will be a single knockout match rather than the usual two-legged format.
The teams will play among themselves on East-West lines throughout the tournament until the final between the best team from each region in the western hub on December 5.
The AFC Cup will also resume in Centralised venues in East and West Asia starting in late October with a one-off final scheduled for December 12.
“Notwithstanding the challenging times, I am delighted that we are seeing more encouraging progress on the return of many domestic leagues to the field and with them comes an expectation that we can conclude both the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup in the coming months,” AFC general secretary Windsor John said in a statement.
As per the latest report the postponed Asian Under 19 Championship will now take place in Uzbekistan from October 14-31, while the Under 16th tournament has been rescheduled for November 25th –December 12th in Bahrain.
