Saudi Arabia to host AFC Champions League finals until 2029

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) confirmed in a statement today that Saudi Arabia successfully organized the finals in an outstanding manner during the last two editions, which contributed to its securing the right to host the next three editions.

It stated: “Following the successful organization of the 2024–2025 and 2025–2026 seasons, the temporary hosting rights granted to the Saudi Arabian Football Federation for the AFC Champions League Elite finals, which were approved in December 2023, have been confirmed as permanent for the 2026–2027, 2027–2028, and 2028–2029 seasons.”

The decision to award Japan the hosting rights for the tournament was part of a package of decisions approved by the Executive Committee, which also included restructuring the strategy for youth competitions. It was decided to transfer the hosting rights for the 2027 AFC U-17 Asian Cup to the Uzbekistan Football Association, while the Saudi Arabian Football Federation was awarded the right to host the 2029 edition of the tournament.

As part of the development of club competitions, the AFC approved a set of structural reforms for the AFC Champions League Elite, which will take effect starting from the 2026–2027 season, in line with the new format featuring 32 clubs.

According to the approved regulations, the tournament draw will be conducted using four tiers instead of two, with each club playing two matches against clubs from each tier based on the draw results. The AFC also decided to schedule the final round of the league stage matches at a unified time within both the Eastern and Western zones to ensure the highest levels of sporting fairness.

Regarding national team competitions, the Executive Committee adopted new amendments to the regulations for the AFC U-20 Asian Cup qualifiers. The host nation of the previous edition will retain the right to participate in the qualifiers if it later competes in the tournament as a non-host. Conversely, the regulations stipulate that any national federation that fails to participate in the tournament or withdraws from it will be relegated to the development phase in the next edition.

At the same time, in order to maintain the full number of 32 teams participating in the qualifiers, vacant spots will be allocated to the highest-ranked teams that were relegated to the development phase in the previous cycle. If any team withdraws after the AFC has finalized the list of participants, the tournament will proceed without appointing a replacement.