Kuala Lumpur: The final eight teams in the AFC Champions League Elite Finals Jeddah 2026 will discover their route to the title when the draw is held on March 25 at 3pm at the Asian Football Confederation House in Kuala Lumpur.
With less than a month remaining before the centralised knockout stage of the AFC Champions League Elite 2025–26 kicks off, the draw will determine the quarter-final matchups through to the final. All seven single-leg ties are scheduled to be played in Jeddah from April 16 to 25.
Fans across Asia can expect high-intensity cross-regional clashes in the quarter-finals, with the competition abandoning the traditional East-West divide at this stage. Four teams from the East have already secured their spots following the Round of 16 earlier this month, while the remaining four berths will be decided in the coming weeks.
Among the confirmed teams, Japan’s FC Machida Zelvia have continued their impressive debut continental campaign by reaching the last eight, while Malaysia’s Johor Darul Ta’zim FC will make their first-ever appearance in the quarter-finals.
Adding prestige to the ceremony, Saudi Arabian football legend Hussein Abdulghani will attend as the draw assistant. The former defender earned 138 caps for Saudi Arabia — joint fifth-highest in the nation’s history — and was part of the squad that won the AFC Asian Cup 1996. At club level, he captained both Al Ahli Saudi FC and Al Nassr Club, and featured 39 times in the AFC Champions League.
For the draw, the eight teams will be allocated into positions 1A to 4A and 1B to 4B to ensure four cross-regional quarter-final pairings. The clubs will be divided into two pots based on region, with seeding determined by their league stage performances. As the West representatives are yet to be finalised, placeholder slots will be assigned and seeded according to the higher-ranked team within each pairing. From the East, FC Machida Zelvia will enter as the top seed.
The draw will begin with the selection of the highest-seeded region via a special pot containing two balls labelled West and East. The region drawn first will occupy positions 1A, 2A, 3B and 4B, while teams from the other region will be placed in positions 3A, 1B, 2B and 4A, in line with the official procedures.
The quarter-finals will kick off on April 16, with additional matches on April 17 and 18. The semi-finals are scheduled for April 20 and 21.
The competition will conclude with the final on April 25 at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium, where the winners will claim Asian club football’s top prize along with a record purse of at least $12 million.
