| Tourney Name: | AFC Champions League |
| Year: | 2016 |
| Num Teams: | 45 |
| Associations: | 17 |
| Champion Other: |  Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors |
| Count: | 2 |
| Second Other: | Al-Ain |
| Matches: | 126 |
| Goals: | 312 |
| Player: | Omar Abdulrahman |
| Fair Play: | Al-Ain |
| Prevseason: | 2015 |
| Nextseason: | 2017 |
The 2016 AFC Champions League was the 35th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 14th under the current AFC Champions League title.
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors defeated Al-Ain in the final to win their second AFC Champions League title, and qualified as the AFC representative at the 2016 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan, their second appearance in the FIFA Club World Cup.[1] [2] Guangzhou Evergrande were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the group stage.
The AFC Competitions Committee proposed a revamp of the AFC club competitions on 25 January 2014,[3] which was ratified by the AFC Executive Committee on 16 April 2014.[4] The 46 AFC member associations (excluding the associate member Northern Mariana Islands) 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 2015 and 2016 editions of the AFC club competitions determined by the 2014 rankings:[5]
The AFC Competitions Committee finalised the slot allocation for the 2015 and 2016 editions of the AFC Champions League based on the criteria, including the AFC rankings and the implementation of club licensing regulations, on 28 November 2014.[6] [7] [8]
The following table shows the slot allocation for the 2016 AFC Champions League, which are adjusted accordingly since some of the slots are unused.
| bgcolor=#f7f8ff colspan=2 | Participation for 2016 AFC Champions League | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor=#90ee77 width=20 | Fulfills participation criteria | ||
| bgcolor=#ffcccc width=20 | Does not fulfill participation criteria |
| +West Zone | |||||||
| Rank | Member Association | Points | Slots | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group stage | Play-off | ||||||
| Zone | All | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | Saudi Arabia | 88.268 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 3 |  Iran | 80.794 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | 5 |  Uzbekistan | 62.272 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | 7 | United Arab Emirates | 57.792 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | 9 |  Qatar | 56.103 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | 10 |  Iraq | 47.106 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | 11 | Kuwait | 45.423 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | 12 |  Jordan | 44.309 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | 14 | Oman | 30.586 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | 16 |  Bahrain | 25.547 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | 17 | Lebanon | 25.043 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 12 | 19 |  Syria | 22.883 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 12 | 8 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 8 | |||||||
| 20 | |||||||
| +East Zone | |||||||
| Rank | Member Association | Points | Slots | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group stage | Play-off | ||||||
| Zone | All | ||||||
| 1 | 1 | South Korea | 94.866 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 4 |  Japan | 77.107 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | 6 |  Australia | 57.940 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | 8 |  China | 57.660 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 5 | 13 |  Thailand | 33.049 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 6 | 15 | Vietnam | 27.753 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 7 | 18 |  Indonesia | 25.004 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | 20 |  Hong Kong | 20.077 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | 21 | Myanmar | 18.949 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 10 | 22 | Malaysia | 18.153 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 11 | 23 |  India | 16.756 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | 24 | Singapore | 16.097 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 12 | 4 | 7 | 2 | |||
| 13 | |||||||
| 25 | |||||||
The following 45 teams from 17 associations entered the competition.[9]
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. TH means title holders.
The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).[10]
| Stage | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preliminary stage | Preliminary round 1 | No draw | 27 January 2016 | |
| Preliminary round 2 | 2 February 2016 | |||
| Play-off stage | Play-off round | 9 February 2016 | ||
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 10 December 2015 | 23–24 February 2016 | |
| Matchday 2 | 1–2 March 2016 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 15–16 March 2016 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 5–6 April 2016 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 19–20 April 2016 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 3–4 May 2016 | |||
| Knockout stage | Round of 16 | 17–18 May 2016 | 24–25 May 2016 | |
| Quarter-finals | 9 June 2016[11] | 23–24 August 2016 | 13–14 September 2016 | |
| Semi-finals | 27–28 September 2016 | 18–19 October 2016 | ||
| Final | 19 November 2016 | 26 November 2016 | ||
See main article: 2016 AFC Champions League qualifying play-off.
See main article: 2016 AFC Champions League group stage.
See main article: 2016 AFC Champions League knockout stage.
See main article: 2016 AFC Champions League Final.
| Award | Player | Team | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most Valuable Player[12] | Omar Abdulrahman | Al-Ain | |
| Top Goalscorer[13] |  Adriano | FC Seoul | |
| Fair Play Award | — | Al-Ain |
Source:[14]
Source:[15]
| Position | Player | Team | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goalkeeper | Khalid Eisa | Al-Ain | |
| align=center rowspan=3 | Defenders | Ahmed Al-Yassi | Al-Nasr |
| Ismail Ahmed | Al-Ain | ||
| Mahmoud Khamees | Al-Nasr | ||
| align=center rowspan=4 | Midfielders | Omar Abdulrahman | Al-Ain |
| Leonardo | Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors | ||
| Lee Jae-sung | Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors | ||
| Wu Lei | Shanghai SIPG | ||
| align=center rowspan=3 | Forwards | Adriano | FC Seoul |
| Douglas | Al-Ain | ||
| Romarinho | El Jaish |
| Rank | Player | Team |    |    | Total | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adriano | FC Seoul | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 13 | |||||||
| 2 | Leonardo | Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | ||||||||
| 3 | Romarinho | El Jaish | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | |||||||||
| 4 |  Dejan Damjanović | FC Seoul | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |||||||||
| Douglas | Al-Ain | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |||||||||||
| Igor Sergeev | Pakhtakor | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | |||||||||||
| Lee Dong-gook | Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | |||||||||||
| Wu Lei | Shanghai SIPG | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||||||||||
| 9 |  Danilo Moreno Asprilla | Al-Ain | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||||
 Besart Berisha | Melbourne Victory | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |||||||||||
| Elkeson | Shanghai SIPG | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||||||
 Abderrazak Hamdallah | El Jaish | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |||||||||||
| Jô | Jiangsu Suning | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |||||||||||
| Nguyễn Anh Đức | Becamex Bình Dương | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ||||||||||||
| Diego Tardelli | Shandong Luneng | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
On 25 January 2016, the AFC announced changes to the group stage schedule due to Saudi Arabia's refusal to play in Iran.[19] After the changes, all matches between teams from Iran and Saudi Arabia (including possible play-off winners) were rescheduled to be played on matchdays 5 and 6 (19–20 April and 3–4 May). The venues of these matches would be decided after an evaluation deadline of 15 March 2016. As there had not been a return to normal relations between the two countries by then with Saudi Arabia refusing to lift their travel restrictions to Iran, the AFC accepted the Saudi Arabian Football Federation's proposal of playing all matches between teams from Iran and Saudi Arabia in neutral venues.[20] The Saudi Arabian Football Federation supports its clubs who refuse to travel to Iran.[21] The Iranian Football Federation has stated that it could withdraw from the AFC Champions League due to the venue changes.[22]
