Tournament for Asian champions; there was a long interruption between the first four tournaments (the Asian Club Championship), dominated by the Israeli teams, and the current series.
From 2002/03 the tournament merged with the Asian Cup Winners' Cup into an Asian Champions' League.
From 2004 on, only the 14 'mature' member associations of AFC were entitled to register clubs for the Champions' League; the so-called 'developing' members are relegated to the newly created AFC Cup, and the remaining, 'emerging' countries, to the Presidents Cup. There have been some movements in the composition of the associations involved in each tournament and some qualifying rounds were set up in later years, but the decision on which countries may enter how many clubs in the major AFC club tournament does not only depend on sporting criteria; cf. also the discussion of the changes made before the 2009 tournament, and the fairly frivolous AFC Final Assessment Ranking on which these were (allegedly) based.
1967 Hapoel Tel-Aviv 1969 Maccabi Tel-Aviv 1970 Taj Club (Tehran) 1971 Maccabi Tel-Aviv 1972 cancelled 1973-85 not held 1986 Daewoo Royals 1987 Furukawa 1988 Yomiuri 1989 Al-Sadd 1990 Liaoning 1991 Esteghlal (Tehran) 1992 Al-Hilal (Riyadh) 1993 Paas (Tehran) 1994 Thai Farmers Bank 1995 Thai Farmers Bank 1996 Ilhwa Chunma 1997 Pohang Steelers 1998 Pohang Steelers 1999 Jubilo Iwata 2000 Al-Hilal (Riyadh) 2001 Suwon Samsung Bluewings 2002 Suwon Samsung Bluewings 2003 Al-Ain 2004 Al-Ittihad (Jeddah) 2005 Al-Ittihad (Jeddah) 2006 Chonbuk Hyundai Motors 2007 Urawa Red Diamonds 2008 Gamba Osaka 2009 Pohang Steelers 2010 Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma 2011 Al-Sadd 2012 Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i 2013 Guangzhou Evergrande 2014 Western Sydney Wanderers 2015 Guangzhou Evergrande 2016 Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 2017 Urawa Red Diamonds 2018 Kashima Antlers 2019 Al-Hilal (Riyadh) 2020 Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i 2021 Al-Hilal (Riyadh) 2023 Urawa Red Diamonds 2024 Al-Ain
Al-Hilal (Riyadh) 4 Pohang Steelers 3 Urawa Red Diamonds 3 Al-Ain 2 Esteghlal 2 [includes Taj Club] Guangzhou Evergrande 2 Al-Ittihad 2 Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 2 [includes Chonbuk Hyundai Motors] Maccabi Tel-Aviv 2 Al-Sadd 2 Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma 2 [includes Ilhwa Chunma] Suwon Samsung Bluewings 2 Thai Farmers Bank 2 Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i 2 Daewoo Royals 1 Furukawa 1 Gamba Osaka 1 Hapoel Tel-Aviv 1 Jubilo Iwata 1 Kashima Antlers 1 Liaoning 1 Paas 1 Western Sydney Wanderers 1 Yomiuri 1
South Korea 12 Japan 8 Saudi Arabia 6 China 3 Iran 3 Israel 3 Qatar 2 Thailand 2 UAE 2 Australia 1
19-12-1967 Hapoel Tel-Aviv 2-1 Selangor [in Bangkok] 30- 1-1969 Maccabi Tel-Aviv 1-0 Yangzee [in Bangkok] 10- 4-1970 Taj Club 2-1 Hapoel Tel-Aviv [in Tehran] 2- 4-1971 Maccabi Tel-Aviv w/o Al-Shorta (Bagdad) [in Bangkok] 29- 1-1986 Daewoo Royals 3-1 Al-Ahly (Jeddah) [in Jeddah] 1986/87 Furukawa won final tournament in Riyadh, Dec 1986 1987/88 Yomiuri (Kawasaki) w/o Al-Hilal (Riyadh) 31- 3-1989 Al-Rasheed (Bagdad) 3-2 Al-Sadd 6- 4-1989 Al-Sadd (Doha) 1-0 Al-Rasheed 22- 4-1990 Nissan (Yokohama) 1-2 Liaoning 29- 4-1990 Liaoning (Shenyang) 1-1 Nissan 29- 7-1991 Esteghlal 2-1 Liaoning [in Dhaka] 22-12-1991 Al-Hilal (Riyadh) 1-1 Esteghlal [4-3 pen, in Doha] 22- 1-1993 Paas 1-0 Al-Shabab (Riyadh) [in Bahrain] 7- 2-1994 Thai Farmers Bank 2-1 Omani Club [in Bangkok] 29- 1-1995 Thai Farmers Bank 1-0 Al-Arabi (Doha) [in Bangkok] 31-12-1995 Ilhwa Chunma 1-0 Al-Nasr [aet, in Riyadh] 9- 3-1997 Pohang Steelers 2-1 Ilhwa Chunma [asdet, in Kuala Lumpur] 4- 5-1998 Pohang Steelers 0-0 Dalian Wanda [asdet, 6-5 pen, in Hongkong] 30- 4-1999 Jubilo Iwata 2-1 Esteghlal [in Tehran] 22- 4-2000 Al-Hilal (Riyadh) 3-2 Jubilo Iwata [asdet, in Riyadh] 26- 5-2001 Suwon S. Bluewings 1-0 Jubilo Iwata [in Suwon] 5- 4-2002 Suwon S. Bluewings 0-0 Anyang LG Cheetahs [asdet, 4-2 pen, in Tehran] 3-10-2003 Al-Ain 2-0 BEC Tero Sasana 11-10-2003 BEC Tero Sasana 1-0 Al-Ain 24-11-2004 Al-Ittihad 1-3 Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma 1-12-2004 S. Ilhwa Chunma 0-5 Al-Ittihad 26-10-2005 Al-Ain 1-1 Al-Ittihad 5-11-2005 Al-Ittihad 4-2 Al-Ain 1-11-2006 Chonbuk H. Motors 2-0 Al-Karama 8-11-2006 Al-Karama 2-1 Chonbuk Hyundai Motors 7-11-2007 Sepahan (Isfahan) 1-1 Urawa Red Diamonds 14-11-2007 Urawa Red Diamonds 2-0 Sepahan (Isfahan) 5-11-2008 Gamba Osaka 3-0 Adelaide United 12-11-2008 Adelaide United 0-2 Gamba Osaka 7-11-2009 Pohang Steelers 2-1 Al-Ittihad [in Tokyo] 13-11-2010 S. Ilhwa Chunma 3-1 Zob-Ahan [in Tokyo] 5-11-2011 Jeonbuk H. Motors 2-2 Al-Sadd (Doha) [aet, 2-4 pen, in Jeonju] 10-11-2012 Ulsan Hyundai 3-0 Al-Ahly (Jeddah) [in Ulsan] 26-10-2013 FC Seoul 2-2 Guangzhou Evergrande 9-11-2013 Guangzhou Evergr. 1-1 FC Seoul 25-10-2014 W. Sydney Wanderers 1-0 Al-Hilal (Riyadh) 1-11-2014 Al-Hilal (Riyadh) 0-0 Western Sydney Wanderers 7-11-2015 Al-Ahli (Dubai) 0-0 Guangzhou Evergrande 21-11-2015 Guangzhou Evergr. 1-0 Al-Ahli (Dubai) 19-11-2016 Jeonbuk H. Motors 2-1 Al-Ain 26-11-2016 Al-Ain 1-1 Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 18-11-2017 Al-Hilal (Riyadh) 1-1 Urawa Red Diamonds 25-11-2017 Urawa Red Diamonds 1-0 Al-Hilal (Riyadh) 3-11-2018 Kashima Antlers 2-0 Perspolis 10-11-2018 Perspolis 0-0 Kashima Antlers 9-11-2019 Al-Hilal (Riyadh) 1-0 Urawa Red Diamonds 24-11-2019 Urawa Red Diamonds 0-2 Al-Hilal (Riyadh) 19-12-2020 Ulsan Hyundai 2-1 Perspolis [in Al-Wakrah] 23-11-2021 Al-Hilal (Riyadh) 2-0 Pohang Steelers [in Riyadh] 29- 4-2023 Al-Hilal (Riyadh) 1-1 Urawa Red Diamonds [in Riyadh] 6- 5-2023 Urawa Red Diamonds 1-0 Al-Hilal (Riyadh) 11- 5-2024 Yokohama F. Marinos 2-1 Al-Ain 25- 5-2024 Al-Ain 5-1 Yokohama F. Marinos win fin South Korea 12 19 Japan 8 13 Saudi Arabia 6 16 Iran 3 9 China 3 5 Israel 3 4 UAE 2 5 Qatar 2 3 Thailand 2 3 Australia 1 2 Iraq 2 Malaysia 1 Oman 1 Syria 1 42 84
Thanks to Roberto Di Maggio
Prepared and maintained by Atsushi Fujioka, Stephen Halchuk and Karel Stokkermans for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
Authors: Atsushi Fujioka, Stephen Halchuk and Karel Stokkermans
Last updated: 14 Jun 2024
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