2015 AFC Club Competition Rankings

I am aware of what it says, I am just questioning the logistics of it.

From what I understand from the article, Pahang will go play in the AFC playoffs only if JDT don't reach the ACL group stage.

In the possible scenario I mentioned, if JDT gets knocked out at the third play off stage (scheduled for 17-FEB-2015), then Pahang can not possibly play in AFC Cup qualifers, as the final playoff round also finishes on the same date.

 

Exciting news!!!!! AFC released the technical standard rankings as of 1-JUN-2014 (it is also attached at the bottom if the link doesnt work).

There are some changes to the calculation methods already discussed in posts #1 and #6, namely:

- Match points award to the results of matches at full time (either 90' or 120'). Results of penalty shootouts are not considered (see post #6 for method used in previous years)
- The biggest change is that teams are awarded 3 bonus points for each round progression, rather than 1.

These rankings take into account the June FIFA rankings, results up to the Last 16 and bonus points for reaching the quarter finals. AFC are not taking into account AFC President Cup results.

I have recalculated my ranking table based on the above information and get the following:



The points totals are as published to +/-0.001 (rounding errors).

Below is how the rankings look using July's FIFA rankings:




* As the highest ranked teams from each half of the AFC Cup bracket are both West teams, both UZB playoff teams will probably be transferred to the East to balance out the draw.
** Australia is limited to 3 teams. Their 4th slot could potentially transfer to VIE.

Potential Playoff bracket:



* AFC Cup Finalists

 

So I was looking at the 2015 AFC Calendar, and noticed an event from 9-15 august called "AFC Cup Play-off Qualifiers".

Anyone have any idea what the hell this is?!

EDIT: if the link doesnt work, the calendar can be download here.

 

Do you have a source?

If not, can you confirm the order of Group D round 1. I think it should be MAS v MDV/MYA

Also, I think Group A round 1 should have Indonesia 1, and Group C round 1 should be India 1. No way are India ranked high enough to have 2 slots.

I am trying to find which set of rankings they have used to determine this. In all the possible lists India is ranked 24th and Maldives arent in the top 24.

Thanks

 

Agreed, but I would rather see 2-legged encounters. Unfortunately with the scheduling, AFC doesnt have much calendar space to do this...

However, if they played the entire knockout stage in the latter half of the year (say Aug: L16, Sep: QF, Oct: SF, Nov: Final), they would create space in Feb for 2 rounds of playoffs, each round over 2 legs (or even Jan for 3 rounds) and have group stage matches in Mar, Apr and May (or even Jun).

One issue with playing in Nov is lack of preparation time for CWC.

 

Also, I am 99% sure this will be the final rankings of West MAs:



I will give the full table when I know exactly what dates the rankings were determined. The above positions are relative to other Western MAs.

With this, I can guestimate the play/off draw using rules AFC have applied in the past and the provisional East draw above:

Group A:
Round 1: QAT3 v SYR1; IRQ2 v BHR1
Round 2: QAT3/SYR1 v IRQ2/BHR1
Round 3: KSA4 v Winner R2

Group B:
Round 1: KUW1 [AC W] v LIB1
Round 2: QAT2 v Winner R1
Round 3: IRN4 v Winner R2

Group C:
Round 1: IRQ3 [AC RU] v OMA1
Round 2: UAE4 v Winner R1
Round 3: UZB3 v Winner R2

Group D:
Round 1: JOR1 v KUW2
Round 2: UAE 3 v Winner R1
Round 3: UZB 4 v Winner R2

 

With club competitions now finished, here is how the MA rankings look using Octobers FIFA rankings:



The next FIFA rankings are released on Nov-27, which is during the AFC Congress. However, given that play-offs draws have been circulating, these rankings might not be used at all. I have just posted them here for reference.

 

AFC have include a link on their CL pages to MA Rankings dated 3-NOV-2014.

The final ranking points are identical to those given post above . As such, I think it is safe to assume that these rankings will be used for allocation and seeding purposes.

Below is what I am predicting will be the playoff draws (with the teams listed from the wikipedia page)

Of course, I have based these predictions on previous draws, pass-down rules (ie with AFC Cup finalists doubly qualifying), that all qualifying teams are eligible to enter, and what has previous been mentioned by the AFC.

The AFC of course could change their minds entirely at the AFC Congress at the end of the month!

 

India should be crossing their fingers that AFC dont decide to use todays FIFA rankings in determining slot distribution next year; they lay 25th, outside of ACL allocation.

 

Depends on which rankings they go with.

I am 99% sure they will use the rankings released on November 3. This ranks Kuwait 6th in the west, which entitles them to 1 play off spot: Al-Qadsia. Additionally, they are awarded another play-off spot due Al-Qadsia winning the 2014 AFC Cup. As Al-Qadsia will qualify twice, Al-Kuwait will get the vacant spot (based on previous years results).

If the rankings in the above post are used (there is a chance, AFC have not announced which rankings they will use yet) then Kuwait is ranked 5th in the west, which allocates 1 group stage spot (Al-Qadsia) and 1 play-off spot (Al-Kuwait); plus an addition spot as AFC Cup winners (this goes to Al-Jahra).

Of course, teams participation is subject to passing club licensing regulations.

 

AFC have released slot allocations for the 2015-16 AFC Champions League and AFC Cup. These are shown the in table below:


NOTES
1) AUS should have 2+2CL, but lose a qualifier due to small league size
2) LAO should have 1+1AC, but only 1 club passed assessment criteria.
3) KGZ and YEM get AC qualifier spots due to participation in last years AFC Cup
4) BAN and NEP get AC qualifier spots due to reaching the final stages of 2014 AFC Presidents Cup. Having said that, MGL and SRI should be eligible, but I am guessing they didnt pass assessment. The other 2 MAs, TKM and PRK (withdrew), received automatic allocation due to their ranking.

Not too sure how AFC are going to manage eastern AFC Cup qualifiers... 5 teams for 4 spots seems rather pointless. They may move MAS, IND and SIN straight to the group stage, leaving MDV and PHI fighting for the last place. Or they may move some western teams across, certainly BAN and NEP are be close enough travelwise. Additionally, I am unsure as to how many clubs will advance from the AFC Cup playoffs (scheduled for August 2015) to the 2016 AFC Cup qualifiers.

So that means PLE, PHI and LAO clubs will make their AFC Cup group stage debuts next season, and NEP in the qualifiers.

Just completeness, this is how I think the allocations would have been had everyone passed assessment and hadnt withdrew:

 

I would ignore it for the time being. Theres quite a few mistakes in it - some minor calculation errors, but some pretty major ones. To name a few:

- Sanfreece Hiroshima listed at 35 and 45;
- South China ranked 87 and 107;
- Urawa Red Diamonds missed labelled as "Lokomotiv" (ranked 60);
- Al Shorta (IRQ) 2014 total listed under Al Shorta (SYR);
- Pakhtakor and Sydney missing totals for 2012 and 2011 respectively.

If anyone is interested, I can upload my calculations based directly off the criteria (which is different to how MA ranking is calculated btw) set by AFC.