AFC Challenge League 2026/27

AFC Challenge League is the third-tier continental club football competition organized by the Asian Football Confederation. These teams come from associations ranked lower in the AFC Club Competitions Ranking. They do not receive direct slots to the top-tier AFC Champions League Elite or the second-tier AFC Champions League Two. The competition was originally founded as the AFC President's Cup in 2005. It was discontinued in 2014 and merged into the AFC Cup. The tournament was revived and rebranded as the AFC Challenge League for the 2024–25 season following restructuring announced in December 2022. For the 2025–26 season, the competition proper features 20 teams in the group stage. These are divided into five groups of four across the West and East Regions. Group stage matches are played in a centralized single-leg format to reduce costs. Each team plays its opponents once. Teams also participate in preliminary or play-off rounds, with a total of 29 teams entering the competition across all stages. The knockout phase consists of quarter-finals and semi-finals played over two legs. The final is a single-leg match hosted by one of the participating clubs. Promotion exists from the Challenge League to the AFC Champions League Two. The winner qualifies for the group stage of the following season's ACL Two, and the runner-up qualifies for the preliminary stage. There is no relegation from the Challenge League to domestic cups, as the AFC does not manage domestic structures. Regar-TadAZ of Tajikistan holds the record for the most titles in the competition's history, including the President's Cup era. They have won three titles. The current reigning champion is Kuwait SC, who won the 2025–26 edition.