2016 AFC Cup

2016 AFC Cup

Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying round: 11–15 August 2015 Competition proper: 9 February – 5 November 2016
Teams	Competition proper: 36 Total: 40 (from 23 associations)
Final positions
Champions	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya (1st title)
Runners-up	Bengaluru FC
Tournament statistics
Matches played	127
Goals scored	361 (2.84 per match)
Attendance	394,183 (3,104 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Hammadi Ahmad (16 goals)
Best player	Hammadi Ahmad
Fair play award	Bengaluru FC

The 2016 AFC Cup was the 13th edition of the AFC Cup, Asia's secondary club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).^[1]

Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya defeated Bengaluru FC in the final to win their first AFC Cup title, becoming the first Iraqi team to win an Asian club competition.^[2] Johor Darul Ta'zim were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the semi-finals by Bengaluru FC.

Association team allocation

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 associations are split into West Zone and East Zone, with 23 associations in each zone:
  • West Zone consists of the associations from West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, except India and Maldives
  • East Zone consists of the associations from ASEAN and East Asia, plus India and Maldives
• In each zone, there are a total of 12 direct slots in the group stage, with the 4 remaining slots filled through play-offs.
• All associations which do not receive direct slots in the AFC Champions League group stage are eligible to enter the AFC Cup.
• The associations ranked 7th to 16th in each zone get at least one direct slot in the group stage (including losers of the AFC Champions League qualifying play-off), while the remaining associations get only play-off slots:
  • The associations ranked 7th and 8th each get two direct slots.
  • The associations ranked 9th to 12th each get one direct slot and one play-off slot (in play-off round).
  • The associations ranked 13th to 16th each get one direct slot and one play-off slot (in preliminary round).
  • The associations ranked 17th or below each get one play-off slot (in qualifying round).

The AFC Competitions Committee decided on the participation of member associations in the 2015 and 2016 editions of the AFC Cup on 28 November 2014.^[6][7][8]

The following table shows the slot allocation for the 2016 AFC Cup, which are adjusted accordingly since some of the slots are unused.

Participation for 2016 AFC Cup[9][10]
	Participating
	Not participating

Notes

Teams

The following 40 teams from 23 associations entered the competition.^[9]

Team	Qualifying method	App	Last App
Entering in qualifying round (teams not split into zones for qualifying round)[10]
Alga	2014 Kyrgyzstan League 3rd place	1st	none
Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi	2013–14 Bangladesh Football Premier League champions	1st	none
K-Electric	2014–15 Pakistan Premier League champions	1st	none
Benfica de Macau	2015 Campeonato da 1ª Divisão do Futebol champions	1st	none
Khoromkhon	2014 Mongolia Premier League champions	1st	none
Druk United	2014 Bhutan National League champions	1st	none

Notes

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws are held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).^[11]

Stage	Round	Draw date	First leg	Second leg
Qualifying stage	Qualifying round	29 June 2015[10]	11–15 August 2015[12]
Play-off stage	Play-off round	No draw	9 February 2016
Group stage	Matchday 1	10 December 2015[9]	23–24 February 2016
	Matchday 2		8–9 March 2016
	Matchday 3		15–16 March 2016
	Matchday 4		12–13 April 2016
	Matchday 5		26–27 April 2016
	Matchday 6		10–11 May 2016
Knockout stage	Round of 16		24–25 May 2016
	Quarter-finals	9 June 2016[13]	13–14 September 2016	20–21 September 2016
	Semi-finals		27–28 September 2016	18–19 October 2016
	Final		5 November 2016

Qualifying round

The draw for the qualifying round was held on 29 June 2015 at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The six teams were drawn into two groups of three.^[10] In the qualifying round, each group was played on a single round-robin basis at the pre-selected hosts. The winners of each group advanced to either the qualifying play-off or the group stage (depending on number of teams in each zone and geographical location).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		KEL	DRU	KHO
1	K-Electric	2	1	1	0	4	3	+1	4	Qualifying play-off		—	3–3	—
2	Druk United (H)	2	0	2	0	3	3	0	2			—	—	0–0
3	Khoromkhon	2	0	1	1	0	1	−1	1			0–1	—	—

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		SJD	ALG	BEN
1	Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi	2	1	1	0	5	2	+3	4	Group stage[lower-alpha 1]		—	—	4–1
2	Alga (H)	2	1	1	0	3	1	+2	4			1–1	—	—
3	Benfica de Macau	2	0	0	2	1	6	−5	0			—	0–2	—

Qualifying play-off

In the qualifying play-off, each tie was played as a single match. Extra time and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Article 10.2). The four winners of the play-off round advanced to the group stage to join the 28 direct entrants.^[1] The bracket of the qualifying play-off was determined by the AFC based on the association ranking of each team, with the team from the higher-ranked association hosting each match.^[14][15]

Play-off round

Team 1	Score	Team 2
West Zone
Al-Hidd	2–0	K-Electric
Tripoli	0–0 (a.e.t.) (7–6 p)	Alay Osh
Al-Wahda	2–0	Balkan
Ahli Al-Khaleel	1–0	Khujand

Group stage

The draw for the group stage was held on 10 December 2015, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the Petaling Jaya Hilton Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.^[9] The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.^[14][15] In the group stage, each group was played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the round of 16.^[1]

Tiebreakers

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers would be applied in the following order (Regulations Article 11.5):[1] Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned; Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned; Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned; Greater number of away goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned; If, after applying criteria 1 to 4, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 4 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6 to 10 apply; Goal difference in all the group matches; Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches; Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play; Fewer score calculated according to the number of yellow and red cards received in the group matches (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card); Team who belongs to the member association with the higher AFC ranking.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		AHE	WEH	HID	ALT
1	Al-Ahed	6	4	0	2	14	9	+5	12	Knockout stage		—	3–2	1–0	3–0
2	Al-Wehdat	6	2	2	2	10	12	−2	8			3–2	—	2–0	1–1
3	Al-Hidd	6	2	1	3	11	12	−1	7			2–5	6–2	—	1–1
4	Altyn Asyr	6	1	3	2	5	7	−2	6			2–0	0–0	1–2	—

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		NAF	FAI	TRI	IST
1	Naft Al-Wasat	6	5	0	1	9	3	+6	15	Knockout stage		—	1–0	1–0	2–0
2	Al-Faisaly	6	3	2	1	10	6	+4	11			2–1	—	3–1	4–2
3	Tripoli	6	2	1	3	8	10	−2	7			1–3	1–1	—	2–1
4	Istiklol	6	0	1	5	4	12	−8	1			0–1	0–0	1–3	—

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		QUW	WAH	DHA	ORU
1	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	6	5	0	1	15	7	+8	15	Knockout stage		—	1–0	4–1	2–1
2	Al-Wahda	6	3	0	3	11	9	+2	9			5–2	—	0–3[lower-alpha 1]	2–1
3	Shabab Al-Dhahiriya	6	2	1	3	7	10	−3	7			0–2	0–3[lower-alpha 2]	—	2–0
4	Al-Oruba	6	1	1	4	5	12	−7	4			0–4	2–1	1–1	—

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		MHQ	JAI	KHA	FAN
1	Al-Muharraq	6	5	1	0	9	3	+6	16	Knockout stage		—	1–0	2–1	1–0
2	Al-Jaish	6	3	1	2	5	3	+2	10			0–2	—	1–0	1–0
3	Ahli Al-Khaleel	6	1	2	3	7	11	−4	5			1–1	0–3[lower-alpha 1]	—	2–1
4	Fanja	6	0	2	4	5	9	−4	2			1–2	0–0	3–3	—

Group E

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		CER	TAM	SEL	SJD
1	Ceres	6	3	3	0	12	4	+8	12	Knockout stage		—	2–1	2–2	5–0
2	Tampines Rovers	6	3	1	2	10	6	+4	10			1–1	—	1–0	4–0
3	Selangor	6	2	2	2	8	8	0	8			0–0	0–1	—	2–1
4	Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi	6	1	0	5	7	19	−12	3			0–2	3–2	3–4	—

Group F

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		KIT	KAY	BAL	NRA
1	Kitchee	6	4	1	1	8	1	+7	13	Knockout stage		—	1–0	4–0	0–0
2	Kaya	6	3	1	2	5	2	+3	10			0–1	—	1–0	1–0
3	Balestier Khalsa	6	2	1	3	6	10	−4	7			1–0	0–3	—	3–0
4	New Radiant	6	0	3	3	2	8	−6	3			0–2	0–0	2–2	—

Group G

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		MOH	SCA	YAN	MAZ
1	Mohun Bagan	6	3	2	1	14	9	+5	11	Knockout stage		—	0–3	3–2	5–2
2	South China	6	3	0	3	9	9	0	9			0–4	—	2–1	2–0
3	Yangon United	6	2	2	2	10	10	0	8			1–1	2–1	—	3–2
4	Maziya	6	1	2	3	8	13	−5	5			1–1	2–1	1–1	—

Group H

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		JDT	BFC	AYE	LAO
1	Johor Darul Ta'zim	6	6	0	0	21	3	+18	18	Knockout stage		—	3–0	8–1	3–0
2	Bengaluru FC	6	3	0	3	9	10	−1	9			0–1	—	5–3	2–1
3	Ayeyawady United	6	2	0	4	12	20	−8	6			1–2	0–1	—	4–2
4	Lao Toyota FC	6	1	0	5	8	17	−9	3			1–4	2–1	2–3	—

Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, the 16 teams played a single-elimination tournament, with the teams split between the two zones until the final. In the quarter-finals and semi-finals, each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis, while in the round of 16 and final, each tie was played as a single match. The away goals rule (for two-legged ties), extra time (away goals would not apply in extra time) and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Article 12.4).^[1]

Starting from this season, the knockout stage was split between the two zones until the final, similar to the AFC Champions League (Regulations Article 12.3).^[1]

Bracket

	Round of 16				Quarter-finals						Semi-finals						Final
	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	2
	Al-Wehdat	1
					Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	1	4	5
					Al-Jaish	1	0	1
	Naft Al-Wasat	0
	Al-Jaish	1
											Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	1	3	4
										Al-Ahed	1	2	3
	Al-Ahed	4
	Al-Wahda	0
					Al-Ahed	1	2	3
					Al-Muharraq	0	0	0
	Al-Muharraq	1
	Al-Faisaly	0
																Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	1
																	Bengaluru FC	0
	Ceres	0
	South China (a.e.t.)	1
					South China	1	1	2
					Johor Darul Ta'zim	1	2	3
	Johor Darul Ta'zim	7
	Kaya	2
											Johor Darul Ta'zim	1	1	2
										Bengaluru FC	1	3	4
	Kitchee	2
	Bengaluru FC	3
					Bengaluru FC	1	0	1
					Tampines Rovers	0	0	0
	Mohun Bagan	1
	Tampines Rovers (a.e.t.)	2

Round of 16

In the round of 16, the winners of one group played the runners-up of another group from the same zone, with the group winners hosting the match.^[15]

Team 1	Score	Team 2
West Zone
Al-Ahed	4–0	Al-Wahda
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	2–1	Al-Wehdat
Naft Al-Wasat	0–1	Al-Jaish
Al-Muharraq	1–0	Al-Faisaly
East Zone
Ceres	0–1 (a.e.t.)	South China
Mohun Bagan	1–2 (a.e.t.)	Tampines Rovers
Kitchee	2–3	Bengaluru FC
Johor Darul Ta'zim	7–2	Kaya

Quarter-finals

In the quarter-finals, the four teams from the West Zone were drawn into two ties, and the four teams from the East Zone were drawn into the other two ties, with the order of legs also decided by the draw.^[22]

The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 9 June 2016, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the Petaling Jaya Hilton Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.^[13] There was no seeding or country protection, so teams from the same association could be drawn into the same tie.^[22]

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
West Zone
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	5–1	Al-Jaish	1–1	4–0
Al-Ahed	3–0	Al-Muharraq	1–0	2–0
East Zone
South China	2–3	Johor Darul Ta'zim	1–1	1–2
Bengaluru FC	1–0	Tampines Rovers	1–0	0–0

Semi-finals

In the semi-finals, the two quarter-final winners from the West Zone played each other, and the two quarter-final winners from the East Zone played each other, with the order of legs determined by the quarter-final draw.^[22]

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
West Zone
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	4–3	Al-Ahed	1–1	3–2
East Zone
Johor Darul Ta'zim	2–4	Bengaluru FC	1–1	1–3

Final

In the final, the two semi-final winners played each other, with the host team decided by a draw, held after the quarter-final draw.^[22]

Winners

AFC Cup 2016 Winners
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya First Title

Awards

Award	Player	Team
Most Valuable Player	Hammadi Ahmad[23]	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya
Top Goalscorer	Hammadi Ahmad[23]	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya
Fair Play Award	—	Bengaluru FC[24]

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Team	MD1	MD2	MD3	MD4	MD5	MD6	R16	QF1	QF2	SF1	SF2	F	Total
1	Hammadi Ahmad	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	2	1	2	1	2	3	1	1	1		1	1	16
2	Adrián Gallardo	Ceres	1	2	1	1		3							8
	Mohd Safiq Rahim	Johor Darul Ta'zim	3	1	2			1					1		8
4	Christopher Chizoba	Ayeyawady United		3		2		1							6
	Jorge Pereyra Díaz	Johor Darul Ta'zim	1			1			1	1	1	1			6
	Mouhamadou Dramé	Al-Ahed		1	2	1			2						6
	Jeje Lalpekhlua	Mohun Bagan	2	1	2		1								6
	Juan Martín Lucero	Johor Darul Ta'zim	2						3		1				6
	Raja Rafe	Al-Wahda	1		4		1								6
	Rufino	Kitchee	1			2		2	1						6

Note: Goals scored in the qualifying play-off are not counted when determining top scorer (see regulations, Article 77.4).^[1]

Source: the-AFC.com^[25][26][27]

See also

• 2016 AFC Champions League

References

External links

• AFC Cup, the-AFC.com