February 28 – The AFC has formally approved the transition from its current Spring-Autumn season to Autumn-Spring for its club competitions. The change will begin for the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup from the 2023-24 season, once the current 2022 competitions have been concluded.
The AFC’s club competitions have grown both in size and interest as the confederations has increased the number of club participants and its media footprint.
The decision to switch – some of its member associations were already following the ‘European’ calendar with their leagues – was based on aligning with transfer windows allowing clubs to sign higher quality players and coaches as well as spread more evenly the balance between club and national team matches.
Currently out-of-sync club seasons can impact national team preparation with so many Asian players having to break from club duty, in Europe in particular, to travel to join their countries.
For the national teams it will mean that players will see their workloads spread and will give nations the the opportunity to better prepare for major competitions, and hence achieve improved results.
The changes to the season are part of a package of major changes the AFC is bringing in to help their game and national teams become more competitive in international competition.
Foreign player rule changes
AFC Executive Committee also an increase in the foreign players quota for clubs from the existing 3+1 quota to 5+1 (five players of any nationality and one from an AFC MA), to take effect from the revamped 2023-24 season.
The AFC Competitions and AFC Technical Committees, recently removed the 3+1 ceiling on the number of foreign players allowed in the Preliminary Registration, which was also increased from 30 to 35 for 2022 club competitions.
Rule on automatic player suspensions were changed so that a player will only be suspended from the next match in the relevant competition after receiving a caution in three (3) separate matches of the same competition, rather than the current two (2) match ruling.
The AFC Administration will begin the process of researching the topic further before determining the next steps of implementation.
Prize money
The AFC will also allocate 5% of the prize monies from the champions and runners-up of the relevant AFC Competitions, which include the AFC Champions League and AFC Women’s Asian Cup, to the AFC Dream Asia Foundation to boost the confederation’s social responsibility reach and impact.
AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said on the proposed changes last November: “I am pleased to note that the AFC competitions continue to grow. There will be changes to the rules on foreign players, as well as to our competitions calendar. These are all part of the strategy to improve our players, clubs and national teams on the world stage.”
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