AFC Cup is an annual international football competition between clubs in Asia organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
The competition is the second highest club competition in Asia after the AFC Champions League.
AFC Cup is intended for countries - developing countries as listed in the document Vision Asia.
Participants
The following are the 16 countries who participated in the AFC Cup.
- Each one of the club:
India, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam.
- Each of the two clubs:
Syria, Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Maldives, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
- 6 clubs that lost in the play-off AFC Champions League.
The format of the competition
AFC Cup regulatory changes and competition team in the 2009 season.
For the first time in history, teams from Iraq and Kuwait will follow AFC Cup competition. Syria returned to the show after the club won the first competition in 2004.
The other team is Jordan, Bahrain, Oman, Lebanon, Yamen, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and the Maldives. Each state has two places, while Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam would have had one team apart from their club who play in the play-off round of the AFC Champions League.
A total of 32 teams will participate in the competition (20 from West Asia and India, and 12 from East Asia).
The teams will be divided into 8 groups. Group 5 contains 3 teams West Asia and East Asia group contains team.
Two teams from each group will qualify for the round of 16 and will play one game with a knockout.
The quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals will be played in two rounds.
