| Tourney Name: | AFC Champions League |
| Year: | 2023–24 |
| Dates: | Qualifying: 15–22 August 2023 Competition proper: |
| Num Teams: | Competition proper: 40 (from 20 associations) Total (maximum): 53 |
| Associations: | 23 |
| Champion Other: | Al Ain |
| Count: | 2 |
| Second Other: | Yokohama F. Marinos |
| Matches: | 150 |
| Goals: | 471 |
| Top Scorer: |  Soufiane Rahimi (13 goals) |
| Player: | Soufiane Rahimi[1] |
| Prevseason: | 2022 |
| Nextseason: | 2024–25 (ACL Elite) |
The 2023–24 AFC Champions League was the 42nd edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 21st and final under the AFC Champions League title, as the competition would be rebranded as the AFC Champions League Elite starting in 2024–25.
This season was the first to have an inter-year schedule from September (autumn-to-spring), instead of an intra-year schedule (spring-to-autumn), since the 2002–03 season.[2] This edition saw an increase in numbers of preliminary players, with 35 players able to be registered; teams were able to field six foreign players in games, where one of these players had to still be from another Asian nation.
The tournament winner qualified for the 2024 FIFA Intercontinental Cup and 2025 FIFA Club World Cup in the United States. Additionally, the winner entered the League stage of the brand-new 2024–25 AFC Champions League Elite if they had not already qualified through their domestic performance.[3]
Urawa Red Diamonds of Japan were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the group stage.
The 47 AFC member associations were ranked based on their clubs' performance over the last four years in AFC competitions (their national team's FIFA World Rankings no longer considered).[4] The slots were allocated by the following criteria according to the Entry Manual:[5]
For the 2023–24 AFC Champions League, the associations were allocated slots according to the November 2021 AFC club competitions ranking,[8] [9] [10] which took into account their performance in the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup during the period between 2018 and 2021.
| bgcolor=#f7f8ff colspan=2 | Participation for 2023–24 AFC Champions League | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor=#90ee77 width=20 | Participating | ||
| bgcolor=#ffcccc width=20 | Not participating |
| +West Region (5 groups) | ||||||
| Rank | Member association | Points | Slots | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group stage | Play-off | |||||
| 1 | 1 | 100.000 | 3 | 1 | ||
| 2 | 4 | 77.792 | 3 | 1 | ||
| 3 | 5 | 75.131 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 4 | 6 | 64.712 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 5 | 8 | 52.588 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 6 | 10 | 46.131 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 7 | 12 | 37.323 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 8 | 13 | 35.223 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 9 | 16 | 27.871 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 10 | 17 | 25.290 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 11 | 18 | 23.618 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 12 | 21 | 19.452 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 13 | 34 | 5.264 | 0 | |||
| Total | Participating associations: 12 | 16 | 11 | |||
| 27 | ||||||
| +East Region (5 groups) | ||||||
| Rank | Member association | Points | Slots | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group stage | Play-off | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 95.462 | 3 | 1 | ||
| 2 | 3 | 93.412 | 3 | 1 | ||
| 3 | 7 | 59.948 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 4 | 9 | 51.920 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 5 | 11 | 40.925 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 6 | 14 | 34.937 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 7 | 15 | 32.286 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 8 | 19 | 23.080 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 9 | 20 | 21.087 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 10 | 23 | 17.277 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 11 | 24 | 17.016 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 12 | 26 | 15.960 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Total | Participating associations: 11 | 16 | 10 | |||
| 26 | ||||||
In the following table, the number of appearances and last appearance count only those since the 2002–03 season (including qualifying rounds), when the competition was rebranded as the AFC Champions League.
Note: Only teams assured of a place are displayed.
| width=25% | Team | width=60% | Qualifying method | width=16% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Al-Nassr | 2022–23 Saudi Pro League runners-up | 7th | |||
| Tractor | 2022–23 Persian Gulf Pro League fourth place | 7th | |||
| Al-Arabi | 2022–23 Qatar Stars League runners-up 2023 Emir of Qatar Cup winners | 2nd | |||
| Al-Wakrah | 2021–22 Qatar Stars League third place | 1st | |||
| 2022 Uzbekistan Super League runners-up | 1st | ||||
| 2022 Uzbekistan Super League fourth place | 3rd | ||||
| Sharjah | 2021–22 UAE President's Cup winners and 2022–23 UAE President's Cup winners | 6th | |||
| Shabab Al-Ahli | 2022–23 UAE Pro League champions | 11th | |||
| Al-Wehdat | 2022 Jordan FA Cup winners 2022 Jordanian Pro League runners-up | 8th | |||
| Bashundhara Kings | 2021–22 Bangladesh Premier League champions | 1st | |||
| Al-Seeb | 2022 AFC Cup winners | 1st |
| width=25% | Team | width=60% | Qualifying method | width=16% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 K League 1 fourth place | 1st | ||||
| Urawa Red Diamonds | 2022 AFC Champions League winners | 9th | |||
| Zhejiang | 2022 Chinese Super League third place | 2nd | |||
| Shanghai Port | 2022 Chinese Super League fourth place | 8th | |||
| BG Pathum United | 2021–22 Thai League 1 runners-up | 4th | |||
| Port | 2022–23 Thai League 1 third place | 4th | |||
| Lee Man | 2022–23 Hong Kong Premier League runners-up | 1st | |||
| Rangers | 2022–23 Hong Kong Premier League third place | 1st | |||
| Haiphong | 2022 V.League 1 runners-up | 1st | |||
| Bali United | Winners of additional playoff between 2021–22 and 2022–23 Liga 1 champions | 3rd |
The schedule of the competition was as follows.[11]
| Stage | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preliminary stage | Preliminary round | No draw | 15–16 August 2023 | |
| Play-off stage | Play-off round | 22 August 2023 | ||
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 24 August 2023 | 18–20 September 2023 | |
| Matchday 2 | 2–4 October 2023 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 23–25 October 2023 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 6–8 November 2023 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 27–29 November 2023 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 4–6 & 12–13 December 2023 | |||
| Knockout stage | Round of 16 | 28 December 2023 | 13–15 February 2024 | 20–22 February 2024 |
| Quarter-finals | 4–6 March 2024 | 11–13 March 2024 | ||
| Semi-finals | 17 April 2024 | 23–24 April 2024 | ||
| Final | 11 May 2024 | 25 May 2024 | ||
See main article: 2023–24 AFC Champions League qualifying play-offs.
See main article: 2023–24 AFC Champions League group stage.
See main article: 2023–24 AFC Champions League knockout stage.
See main article: 2024 AFC Champions League final.
| Rank | Player | Team | Total | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soufiane Rahimi | Al Ain | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 13 | ||||||
| 2 | Cryzan | Shandong Taishan | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 8 | ||||||||||
 Aleksandar Mitrović | Al Hilal | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Kodjo Fo-Doh Laba | Al Ain | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | Salem Al-Dawsari | Al Hilal | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |||||||||
| Cristiano Ronaldo | Al Nassr | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||
 Talisca | Al Nassr | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| Anderson Lopes | Yokohama F. Marinos | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| 9 |  Martin Ádám | Ulsan Hyundai | 3 | 2 | 5 | |||||||||||||
| Baghdad Bounedjah | Al Sadd | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||
 Khojimat Erkinov | Pakhtakor | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||||||||||||
 Ramin Rezaeian | Sepahan | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Hernandes Rodrigues | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||