Japan falls second behind Saudi Arabia, which dominates the ranking in the AFC with 103.148 points, as a result of  the stellar performance of the country’s top clubs in recent seasons.

Set to host ACL Elite next year, three Saudi clubs earned direct entry to the ACL Elite, while a fourth will represent the Saudi Kingdom in the ACL Two.

In this season alone, Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal and Al Nassr teams, the latter captained by Cristiano Ronaldo, have each booked a place in the Knockout Stage of the continent’s premier club competition. 

Al Ittihad and Al Fayha also booked a spot in the tournament. 

AFC rebranding explained 

Rebranded from the previous AFC Champions League, the ACL Elite adopts a UEFA-style format, reducing the number of participating teams from 40 to 24. The division between East and West Asian clubs remains, but the group stage will now feature a single league of 12 teams per region, instead of five groups of four.

Each team will play four home and four away games against eight randomly selected teams within their region, ensuring that they face most, but not all, other teams. The draws for these eight games will be revealed progressively, with teams learning their next opponent one game at a time.

The top eight teams from each region at the end of the league stage will advance to a traditional two-legged round of 16.

Another significant change is the elimination of the two-legged format for the quarterfinals, semifinals, and final. Instead, these rounds will be condensed into a ‘finals’ contest held over 10 days in one host country. All matches from the quarterfinals onwards will be single-elimination, and clubs from East and West Asia can meet from the quarterfinals, not just in the final.