The 2019 AFC Cup was the 16th 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 ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

's secondary club

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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). Al-Ahed from

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

won the title for the first time, defeating

April 25 Events Pre-1600 * 404 BC – Admiral Lysander and King Pausanias of Sparta blockade Athens and bring the Peloponnesian War to a successful conclusion. * 775 – The Battle of Bagrevand puts an end to an Armenian rebellion against th ...

from

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya () is an Iraqi sports club based in Al-Rusafa, Iraq, Rusafa District, Baghdad that competes in the Iraq Stars League, the top-flight of Football in Iraq, Iraqi football. Founded in 1931, it is the oldest existing club in Iraq. ...

were the title holders, having won the previous three editions of the tournament. However, they were unable to defend the title as Iraqi teams played in the

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

instead of the AFC Cup in the 2019 edition.

Association team allocation

The 46 AFC member associations (excluding the associate member

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) are ranked based on their national team's and clubs' performance over the last four years in AFC competitions, with the allocation of slots for the 2019 and 2020 editions of the AFC club competitions determined by the 2017 AFC rankings (Entry Manual Article 2.3): *The associations are split into five zones: **West Asia Zone consists of the 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). **Central Asia Zone consists of the 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). **South Asia Zone consists of the 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). **ASEAN Zone consists of the 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 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). *All associations which do not receive direct slots in the

group stage are eligible to enter the AFC Cup. *In each zone, the number of groups in the group stage is determined based on the number of entries, with the number of slots filled through play-offs same as the number of groups: **In the West Asia Zone and the ASEAN Zone, there are three groups in the group stage, including a total of 9 direct slots, with the 3 remaining slots filled through play-offs. **In the Central Asia Zone, the South Asia Zone, and the East Asia Zone, there is one group in the group stage, including a total of 3 direct slots, with the 1 remaining slot filled through play-offs. *The top associations participating in the AFC Cup in each zone as per the AFC rankings get at least one direct slot in the group stage (including losers of the AFC Champions League qualifying play-offs), while the remaining associations get only play-off slots: **For the West Asia Zone and the ASEAN zone: ***The associations ranked 1st to 3rd each get two direct slots. ***The associations ranked 4th to 6th each get one direct slot and one play-off slot. ***The associations ranked 7th or below each get one play-off slot. **For the Central Asia Zone, the South Asia Zone, and the East Asia zone: ***The associations ranked 1st to 3rd each get one direct slot and one play-off slot. ***The associations ranked 4th or below each get one play-off slot. *The maximum number of slots for each association is one-third of the total number of eligible teams in the top division. *If any association gives up its direct slots, they are redistributed to the highest eligible association, with each association limited to a maximum of two direct slots. *If any association gives up its play-off slots, they are annulled and not redistributed to any other association. *If the number of teams in the play-offs in any zone is fewer than twice the number of group stage slots filled through play-offs, the play-off teams of the highest eligible associations are given byes to the group stage.

Association ranking

For the 2019 AFC Cup, the associations are allocated slots according to their association ranking which was published on 15 December 2017, which takes into account their performance in the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup, as well as 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 ...

, between 2014 and 2017. ;Notes

Teams

The following 43 teams from 26 associations entered the competition.

;Notes

Schedule

The schedule of the competition is as follows (W: West Asia Zone; C: Central Asia Zone; S: South Asia Zone; A: ASEAN Zone; E: East Asia Zone).

Qualifying play-offs

Preliminary round

Play-off round

Group stage

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Group I

Ranking of second-placed teams

West Asia Zone

ASEAN Zone

Knockout stage

Bracket

Zonal semi-finals

Zonal finals

Inter-zone play-off semi-finals

Inter-zone play-off final

Final

Awards

Top scorers

References

External links

*, the-AFC.com
AFC Cup 2019
stats.the-AFC.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Afc Cup 2019 2

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 ...

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