| Tourney Name: | AFC Champions League |
| Year: | 2017 |
| Dates: | Qualifying: Competition proper: |
| Num Teams: | Competition proper: 32 Total: 47 |
| Associations: | 19 |
| Champion Other: |  Urawa Red Diamonds |
| Count: | 2 |
| Second Other: | Al-Hilal |
| Matches: | 126 |
| Goals: | 394 |
| Top Scorer: |  Omar Kharbin |
| Player: | Yōsuke Kashiwagi |
| Fair Play: | Urawa Red Diamonds |
| Prevseason: | 2016 |
| Nextseason: | 2018 |
The 2017 AFC Champions League was the 36th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 15th under the current AFC Champions League title.
Urawa Red Diamonds defeated Al-Hilal in the final to win their second AFC Champions League title, and qualified as the AFC representative at the 2017 FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.[1]
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors were the defending champions, but they were excluded from the 2017 season due to a bribery scandal in the domestic K League Classic.[2] Jeonbuk appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,[3] but their request for provisional measures was rejected on 3 February.[4]
The AFC Competitions Committee proposed a revamp of the AFC club competitions on 25 January 2014,[5] which was ratified by the AFC Executive Committee on 16 April 2014.[6] 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 2017 and 2018 editions of the AFC club competitions determined by the 2016 AFC rankings (Entry Manual Article 2.2):[7]
For the 2017 AFC Champions League, the associations were allocated slots according to their association ranking published on 30 November 2016,[8] which takes into account their performance in the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup, as well as their national team's FIFA World Rankings, during the period between 2013 and 2016.[7] [9]
The slot allocation was announced on 7 December 2016, with India and Maldives returning to the West Region.[10] The final slot allocation, after unused slots were redistributed, was announced on 12 December 2016.[11] [12]
| bgcolor=#f7f8ff colspan=2 | Participation for 2017 AFC Champions League[13] | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor=#90ee77 width=20 | Participating | ||
| bgcolor=#ffcccc width=20 | Not participating |
| +West Region | |||||||
| Rank | Member Association | Points | Slots | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group stage | Play-off | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | United Arab Emirates | 87.555 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 3 | Saudi Arabia | 84.698 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | 4 |  Iran | 78.908 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | 5 |  Qatar | 78.171 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | 9 |  Uzbekistan | 56.876 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 6 | 10 |  Iraq | 37.240 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | 11 | Kuwait | 36.457 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | 13 | Syria | 34.257 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | 15 |  Jordan | 31.213 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 10 | 18 |  India | 27.930 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 11 | 19 |  Bahrain | 27.353 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 12 | 20 | Lebanon | 22.077 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 12 | 6 | 4 | 0 | |||
| 10 | |||||||
| 22 | |||||||
| +East Region | |||||||
| Rank | Member Association | Points | Slots | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group stage | Play-off | ||||||
| 1 | 1 |  South Korea | 96.311 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 6 | Japan | 75.807 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | 7 |  China | 72.719 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | 8 |  Australia | 72.599 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 5 | 12 |  Thailand | 34.753 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 6 | 14 |  Hong Kong | 31.797 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 7 | 16 | Vietnam | 29.273 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 8 | 17 | Malaysia | 28.865 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | 21 |  Indonesia | 20.372 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | 24 | Myanmar | 17.220 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 11 | 25 | Philippines | 17.188 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | 27 | Singapore | 13.664 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 12 | 4 | 7 | 2 | |||
| 13 | |||||||
| 25 | |||||||
The following 47 teams from 19 associations entered the competition.[11]
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.
The schedule of the competition was as follows.[14] Starting from 2017, matches in the West Region were played on Mondays and Tuesdays instead of Tuesdays and Wednesdays.[15]
| Stage | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preliminary stage | Preliminary round 1 | No draw | 24 January 2017 | |
| Preliminary round 2 | 25 & 31 January 2017 | |||
| Play-off stage | Play-off round | 7–8 February 2017 | ||
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 13 December 2016 (Petaling Jaya, Malaysia) | 20–22 February 2017 | |
| Matchday 2 | 27 February – 1 March 2017 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 13–15 March 2017 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 10–12 April 2017 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 24–26 April 2017 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 8–10 May 2017 | |||
| Knockout stage | Round of 16 | 22–24 May 2017 | 29–31 May 2017 | |
| Quarter-finals | 6 June 2017 (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)[16] | 21–23 August 2017 | 11–13 September 2017 | |
| Semi-finals | 26–27 September 2017 | 17–18 October 2017 | ||
| Final | 18 November 2017 | 25 November 2017 | ||
See main article: 2017 AFC Champions League qualifying play-offs.
See main article: 2017 AFC Champions League group stage.
See main article: 2017 AFC Champions League knockout stage.
See main article: 2017 AFC Champions League Final.
| Award | Player | Team | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most Valuable Player | Yōsuke Kashiwagi[17] | Urawa Red Diamonds | |
| Top Goalscorer | Omar Kharbin[18] | Al-Hilal | |
| Fair Play Award | — | Urawa Red Diamonds |
Source:[19]
| Position | Player | Team | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goalkeeper | Abdullah Al-Mayouf | Al-Hilal | |
| Shusaku Nishikawa | Urawa Red Diamonds | ||
| align=center rowspan=5 | Defenders | Motaz Hawsawi | Al-Ahli |
| Yuki Abe | Urawa Red Diamonds | ||
| Osama Hawsawi | Al-Hilal | ||
| Yasser Al-Shahrani | Al-Hilal | ||
| Mohammed Al-Breik | Al-Hilal | ||
| align=center rowspan=8 | Midfielders | Omar Abdulrahman | Al-Ain |
| Kengo Nakamura | Kawasaki Frontale | ||
 Oscar | Shanghai SIPG | ||
| Yōsuke Kashiwagi | Urawa Red Diamonds | ||
| Salman Al-Faraj | Al-Hilal | ||
| Ricardo Goulart | Guangzhou Evergrande | ||
| Zheng Zhi | Guangzhou Evergrande | ||
| Kazuki Nagasawa | Urawa Red Diamonds | ||
| align=center rowspan=8 | Forwards | Rafael Silva | Urawa Red Diamonds |
| Hulk | Shanghai SIPG | ||
| Omar Kharbin | Al-Hilal | ||
| Yu Kobayashi | Kawasaki Frontale | ||
| Carlos Eduardo | Al-Hilal | ||
| Alan | Guangzhou Evergrande | ||
| Wu Lei | Shanghai SIPG | ||
 Godwin Mensha | Persepolis |
Source:[20]
| Position | Player | Team | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goalkeeper | Abdullah Al-Mayouf | Al-Hilal | |
| align=center rowspan=4 | Defenders | Mohammed Al-Breik | Al-Hilal |
| Tomoaki Makino | Urawa Red Diamonds | ||
| Shi Ke | Shanghai SIPG | ||
| Yasser Al-Shahrani | Al-Hilal | ||
| align=center rowspan=3 | Midfielders | Ricardo Goulart | Guangzhou Evergrande |
| Carlos Eduardo | Al-Hilal | ||
| Paulinho | Guangzhou Evergrande | ||
| align=center rowspan=3 | Forwards | Omar Kharbin | Al-Hilal |
| Rafael Silva | Urawa Red Diamonds | ||
| Hulk | Shanghai SIPG |
| Rank | Player | Team |    |    | Total | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Omar Kharbin | Al-Hilal | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 10 | ||||||||
| 2 | Hulk | Shanghai SIPG | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | |||||
| Rafael Silva | Urawa Red Diamonds | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| 4 | Omar Abdulrahman | Al-Ain | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | |||||||||
| Alan | Guangzhou Evergrande | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Carlos Eduardo | Al-Hilal | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||
| Ricardo Goulart | Guangzhou Evergrande | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||||||||||
| Mehdi Taremi | Persepolis | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| 9 | Yu Kobayashi | Kawasaki Frontale | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | |||||||||
| Kaveh Rezaei | Esteghlal | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Matchday | Toyota Player of the Week | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Team | ||
| Group stage | |||
| Matchday 1[21] |  Youssef El-Arabi | Lekhwiya | |
| Matchday 2[22] | Kim In-sung | Ulsan Hyundai | |
| Matchday 3[23] | Yun Il-lok | FC Seoul | |
| Matchday 4[24] | Ko Seung-beom | Suwon Samsung Bluewings | |
| Matchday 5[25] | Khalid Eisa | Al-Ain | |
| Matchday 6[26] | Nicolás Milesi | Al-Hilal | |
| Knockout stage | |||
| Round of 16 1st leg[27] | Teerasil Dangda | Muangthong United | |
| Round of 16 2nd leg[28] | Omar Abdulrahman | Al-Ain | |
| Quarter-finals 1st leg[29] | Yu Kobayashi | Kawasaki Frontale | |
| Quarter-finals 2nd leg[30] | Carlos Eduardo | Al-Hilal | |
| Semi-finals 1st leg[31] | Omar Kharbin | Al-Hilal | |
| Semi-finals 2nd leg[32] | Godwin Mensha | Persepolis | |
| Final[33] | Mohammed Al-Breik | Al-Hilal | |