2021 AFC Cup
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The 2021 AFC Cup was the 18th edition of the
AFC Cup The AFC Champions League Two (abbreviated as the ACL Two or ACL2) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation. It is the second-tier competition of Asian club football, ranked below the AFC C ...
,
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's secondary club
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tournament organized by the
Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in most countries and territories in Asia. The AFC was formed in 1954. It has 47 members. The Asian Ladies Football Confederation ( ...
(AFC). The winners of the tournament automatically qualified for the
2022 AFC Champions League The 2022 AFC Champions League was the 41st edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 20th under the current AFC Champions League title. This edition was the last in an all-y ...
, entering the qualifying play-offs, if they had not qualified through their domestic performance. Lebanese club Al-Ahed, having won their first AFC Cup title in
2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...
, were the title holders, since the 2020 edition was cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Asia The COVID-19 pandemic began in Asia in Wuhan, Hubei, China, and has spread widely through the continent. As of , at least one case of COVID-19 had been reported in every country in Asia except Turkmenistan. The Asian countries with the high ...
after several group stage matches and the title was not awarded. However, Al-Ahed were eliminated by the eventual winners Al-Muharraq in the West Asia Zonal semi-finals.


Association team allocation

The 46 AFC member associations (excluding the
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, which became a full member in December 2020 and are not eligible for this season) are ranked based on their clubs' performance over the last four years in AFC competitions (their national team's
FIFA World Rankings The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, first introduced in December 1992. The men's teams of the member nations of FIFA, football's world governing body, are ranked based on their gam ...
no longer considered). The slots are allocated by the following criteria according to the Entry Manual: *The associations are split into five zones (Article 5.1): **West Asia Zone consists of the 12 associations from the
West Asian Football Federation The West Asian Football Federation (WAFF; ) is a regional sub-confederation of association football, governed under the Asian Football Confederation. Founded in 2001, it governs football, futsal and beach football for nations in West Asia. The W ...
(WAFF). **South Asia Zone consists of the 7 associations from the
South Asian Football Federation South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) is an association of the football playing nations in South Asia. Incorporated in 1997, it is a regional subsidiary of Asian Football Confederation. The members of the association are Bangladesh, Bhutan, A ...
(SAFF). **Central Asia Zone consists of the 6 associations from
Central Asian Football Association Central Asian Football Association (CAFA) is one of five regional bodies that govern association football in Asia. It governs association football, futsal, and beach football in Central Asia. Headquartered in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, CAFA consists ...
(CAFA). **ASEAN Zone consists of the 12 associations from the
ASEAN Football Federation The ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) is an organisation within the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and is an international governing body of association football, futsal, and beach soccer in Southeast Asia. It consists of the federations of Fo ...
(AFF). **East Asia Zone consists of the 9 associations from the
East Asian Football Federation The East Asian Football Federation (EAFF), founded on 28 May 2002, is an international governing body of association football, football in East Asia. Presidents Member associations EAFF has 10 member associations. All of them are members of th ...
(EAFF). **The AFC may reallocate one or more associations to another zone if necessary for sporting reasons. *Excluding the top five associations in each region for AFC Champions League slot allocation, all other associations are eligible to enter the AFC Cup. *The teams from associations ranked 6th, 11th and 12th which are eliminated in the AFC Champions League qualifying play-offs enter the AFC Cup group stage (Article 3.2). The following rules are applied: **The associations ranked 6th in both the West Region and the East Region, while allocated one direct slot in the AFC Cup group stage without taking away any direct slot from other associations, are not ranked in each zone for AFC Cup slot allocation (Article 5.3). **If they advance to the AFC Champions League group stage, the AFC Cup group stage slot is filled by the standby team from their association if such team are available (Article 5.12). **The rules above do not apply to the AFC Champions League title holders and AFC Cup title holders which are allocated AFC Champions League play-off slots should they not qualify for the tournament through domestic performance. *In the West Asia Zone and the ASEAN Zone, there are three groups in the group stage, including 9 direct slots, with the 3 remaining slots filled through qualifying play-offs (Article 5.2). The slots in each zone are distributed as follows: **The associations ranked 1st to 3rd are each allocated two direct slots. **The associations ranked 4th to 6th are each allocated one direct slot and one play-off slot. **The associations ranked 7th or below are each allocated get one play-off slot. **If any zone has an association ranked 6th for AFC Champions League slot allocation, which is allocated one direct slot in the AFC Cup group stage, there are 10 direct slots, with the 2 remaining slots filled through qualifying play-offs. *In the South Asia Zone, the Central Asia Zone, and the East Asia Zone, there is one group in the group stage, including 3 direct slots, with the 1 remaining slot filled through qualifying play-offs (Article 5.2). The slots in each zone are distributed as follows: **The associations ranked 1st to 3rd are each allocated one direct slot and one play-off slot. **The associations ranked 4th or below are each allocated one play-off slot. **If any zone has an association ranked 6th for AFC Champions League slot allocation, which is allocated one direct slot in the AFC Cup group stage, there are 4 direct slots, and to ensure equal opportunity in each zone, another group is added to this zone in the group stage, with the 4 remaining slots filled through qualifying play-offs (Article 5.4.1). **If any zone has at least 7 play-off slots, to ensure equal opportunity in each zone, another group is added to this zone in the group stage, with the 5 remaining slots filled through qualifying play-offs (Article 5.4.2). *If any association with direct slots do not fulfill any one of the AFC Cup criteria, they have all their direct slots converted into play-off slots. The direct slots given up are redistributed to the highest eligible association by the following criteria (Articles 5.7 and 5.8): **For each association, the maximum number of total slots is two (Articles 3.4 and 3.5). **If any association is allocated one additional direct slot, one play-off slot is annulled and not redistributed. *If any association with only play-off slot(s), including those mentioned above, do not fulfill the minimum AFC Cup criteria, the play-off slot(s) are annulled and not redistributed (Articles 5.10 and 5.11). *For each association, the maximum number of total slots is one-third of the total number of eligible teams (excluding foreign teams) in the top division (Article 5.6). If this rule is applied, any direct slots given up are redistributed by the same criteria as mentioned above, and play-off slots are annulled and not redistributed (Article 9.10). *All participating teams must be granted an AFC Champions League or AFC Cup license, and apart from cup winners, finish in the top half of their top division (Articles 7.1 and 9.5). If any association do not have enough teams which satisfy these criteria, any direct slots given up are redistributed by the same criteria as mentioned above, and play-off slots are annulled and not redistributed (Article 9.9). *If any team granted a license refuses to participate, their slot, either direct or play-off, is annulled and not redistributed (Article 9.11).


Association ranking

For the 2021 AFC Cup, the associations are allocated slots according to their association ranking which was published on 29 November 2019, which takes into account their performance in the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup during the period between 2016 and 2019. ;Notes


Teams

Teams in ''italics'' will play in the AFC Champions League qualifying play-offs, and will play in the AFC Cup group stage if they fail to advance to the AFC Champions League group stage. Should they advance to the AFC Champions League group stage, they will not play in the AFC Cup, and will be replaced by the standby team from their association if such team are available.


;Notes


Schedule

The schedule of the competition is as follows. On 11 November 2020, the AFC approved a new calendar for the competition due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, where the group stage is played as centralized single round-robin tournament, and the preliminary round, play-off round, and ASEAN Zonal semi-finals and final are played as a single match. On 25 January 2021, the AFC published the schedule of the competition. On 1 March 2021, the AFC announced the hosts for the group stage, except for Group G whose hosts will be decided at a later date. On 27 March 2021, the AFC announced that the West Asia Zone group matches were rescheduled from 23 to 29 May to 21–27 May. On 26 April 2021, the AFC announced that the ASEAN Zone group matches were rescheduled from 22 to 28 June to 29 June – 6 July. On 3 May 2021, the AFC announced that the East Asia Zone group matches were rescheduled from 14 to 20 May to 23–29 June. On 9 May 2021, the AFC announced that the South Asia Zone group matches which were originally scheduled between 14 and 20 May would be postponed indefinitely. On 27 May 2021, the AFC announced that the ASEAN Zone group matches which were originally scheduled between 29 June – 6 July would be postponed indefinitely. On 7 July 2021, AFC decided to cancel the matches in ASEAN Zone. Notes: *W: West Asia Zone *S: South Asia Zone *C: Central Asia Zone *A: ASEAN Zone *E: East Asia Zone The original schedule of the competition, as planned before the pandemic, was as follows.


Qualifying play-offs


Preliminary round 1


Preliminary round 2


Play-off round


Group stage


Group A


Group B


Group C


Group D


Group E


Group F


Group G (cancelled)


Group H (cancelled)


Group I (cancelled)


Group J


Ranking of runner-up teams


West Asia Zone


ASEAN Zone (cancelled)


Knockout stage


Bracket


Zonal semi-finals


Zonal finals


Inter-zone play-off semi-finals


Inter-zone play-off final


Final


Top scorers


See also

*
2021 AFC Champions League The 2021 AFC Champions League was the 40th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 19th under the current AFC Champions League title. Al-Hilal won their fourth title by ...
* 2021 AFC Women's Club Championship


Notes


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Afc Cup 2021 2
2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...
2 2 Association football events postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Association football events curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic