The 2025–26 AFC Champions League Two will be the 22nd edition of the Asia's second-tier 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), and the second under the

AFC Champions League Two 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 Ch ...

title. It will feature 32 teams in the group stage. The winner will be given an indirect preliminary stage slot for the 2026–27 AFC Champions League Elite, if they have not already qualified through their domestic performance.

Sharjah Sharjah (; ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It is the capital of the Emirate of Sharjah and forms part of the D ...

are the reigning champions, but they will be unable to defend their title as they will participate in the AFC Champions League Elite league stage instead.

Association team allocation

The associations are allocated slots according to their club competitions ranking which was published after the 2023–24 competitions were completed. Slots are subject to later re-balancing based on the 2024–25 competition results. ;Notes

Teams

''The number of appearances and last appearance include the AFC Cup as the predecessor of the AFC Champions League Two.'' ;Notes

Schedule

The schedule of the competition is as follows. All matches will be played on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, apart from the final which will take place on a Sunday.

Qualifying play-offs

The three winners of the play-off round (two from West Region and one from East Region) advanced to the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

to join the 29 direct entrants. The losers of the qualifying play-offs entered the

of the 2025–26 AFC Challenge League.

West Region

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East Region

Group stage

The group stage draw is scheduled to take place on 15 August 2025.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2025-26 AFC Champions League Two 2 2 AFC Champions League Two seasons Scheduled association football competitions