Viettel FC earn Vietnam extra AFC Champions League slots

By Xuan Binh July 12, 2021 | 03:54 pm PT

Viettel FC (L) play Kaya-Iloilo at the AFC Champions League 2021. Photo courtesy of Viettel FC.

Vietnam will have two more slots at the AFC Champions League playoffs next year thanks to Viettel FC’s run at the competition this season.

On Sunday, Viettel won 1-0 against Filipino club Kaya-Iloilo in their last AFC Champions League (ACL) group stage game. The victory didn’t affect Viettel’s position in group F, as they were still third and eliminated. However, Viettel’s win added three points for Vietnam and pushed the country to fifth in the AFC club competition ranking for the East region, according to Footy Rankings, the Asian Football Confederation database.

In particular, Vietnam have 39.232 points, placing below Thailand, China, South Korea and Japan. Since those ranked below Vietnam like North Korea, Hong Kong and Malaysia don’t have clubs in the ACL this season, the fifth position will remain open to Vietnam at least until next season.

The AFC club competition ranking will determine the number of slots in the ACL and lower-level competition AFC Cup for each country.

In the 2021 and 2022 season, Vietnam have one slot for the ACL group stage and two in the AFC Cup group stage.

With the new AFC club competition ranking, Vietnam will get one slot in the group stage and two slots in the playoff stage of ACL 2023.

The AFC ranking for a country is calculated by total points earned from the last four ACL and AFC Cup seasons.

Viettel, in their first ACL competition ever, got two wins out of six matches. Both victories were against Kaya.