August 25 – The AFC has postponed the draw ceremony for the AFC Cup 2020 knockout stage that was scheduled to take place this Thursday.
The AFC Cup, the AFC’s baby brother international club competition to its Champions League, has been reorganised into centralised locations for its group stages with East Zone groups to play end of September and West Zone in October. The South Zone group will also play in October.
The logistics around the AFC Cup are more challenging than the Champions League due to the different levels of football development, geographical spread, and different infrastructures in the countries with competing teams.
However, the AFC has said it is working on all fronts to deliver its competition commitments.
At the group stage, the Bahrain Football Association, Kuwait Football Association and Jordan Football Association will host West Zone matches in Groups A, B and C respectively.
All groups had started with one or two games being played by all teams. They will now restart on October 23, 2020 with Group C leaders Qadsia SC from Kuwait taking on Oman’s Dhofar Club. Teams from Groups A and B will restart their campaigns three days later on October 26.
All three groups scheduled to conclude on November 4, 2020 with single-leg West Zonal Semi-finals still scheduled to take place on November 23 and 24 before the final two teams compete in the West Zonal final on December 1, 2020 for a place in the AFC Cup final against the winners of the Inter-zone play-off on December 12, 2020.
In the Eastern Zone, the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) has been confirmed as host for ASEAN Zone Groups F and G matches, which will complete over three match days from September 23 to September 29, 2020.
The Maldives had already been confirmed as the centralised venue for the South Zone matches in Group E which will take place from October 23 to November 4, 2020. The winner of the group will be crowned South Zonal champions and will qualify for the Inter-Zone Semi-Finals which will take place on November 24 and 25, 2020.
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