2023–24 AFC Champions League
42nd edition of premier club football tournament organized by the AFC / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about 2023–24 AFC Champions League?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The 2023–24 AFC Champions League was the 42nd edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 21st and final under the AFC Champions League title, as the competition would be rebranded as the AFC Champions League Elite starting in 2024–25.
Tournament details | |
---|---|
Dates | Qualifying: 15–22 August 2023 Competition proper: 18 September 2023 – 25 May 2024 |
Teams | Competition proper: 40 (from 20 associations)
Total (maximum): 53 (from 23 associations) |
Final positions | |
Champions | Al Ain (2nd title) |
Runners-up | Yokohama F. Marinos |
Tournament statistics | |
Matches played | 150 |
Goals scored | 471 (3.14 per match) |
Attendance | 1,824,824 (12,165 per match) |
Top scorer(s) | Soufiane Rahimi (13 goals) |
Best player(s) | Soufiane Rahimi[1] |
← 2022 2024–25 (ACL Elite) → |
This season was the first to have an inter-year schedule from September (autumn-to-spring), instead of an intra-year schedule (spring-to-autumn), since the 2002–03 season.[2] This edition saw an increase in numbers of preliminary players, with 35 players able to be registered; teams were able to field six foreign players in games, where one of these players had to still be from another Asian nation.
The tournament winner qualified for the 2024 FIFA Intercontinental Cup and 2025 FIFA Club World Cup in the United States. Additionally, the winner entered either the qualifying play-off stage or the League stage of the brand-new 2024–25 AFC Champions League Elite if they had not already qualified through their domestic performance.[3]
Urawa Red Diamonds of Japan were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the group stage.