2023–24 AFC Cup
20th secondary club football tournament organized by the AFC / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2023–24 AFC Cup was the 20th edition of the AFC Cup, Asia's secondary club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the final edition under the AFC Cup title, as the competition was revamped under the name AFC Champions League Two starting in 2024–25.[2] This was the first AFC Cup season to have a two-year (autumn-to-spring) schedule, unlike the previous all-year-round (spring-to-autumn) schedule.[3]
Tournament details | |
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Dates | Qualifying: 8–23 August 2023 Competition proper: 18 September 2023 – 5 May 2024 |
Teams | Competition proper: 36 Total (maximum): 65 (from 37 associations) |
Final positions | |
Champions | Central Coast Mariners (1st title) |
Runners-up | Al Ahed |
Tournament statistics | |
Matches played | 118 |
Goals scored | 386 (3.27 per match) |
Attendance | 373,244 (3,163 per match) |
Top scorer(s) | Marco Túlio (8 goals) |
Best player(s) | Mikael Doka[1] |
← 2022 2024–25 (ACL Two) → |
Al-Seeb were the title holders, having won their first AFC Cup title in 2022. However, they were not able to defend their title, having failed to advance through their domestic top-division league.
Central Coast Mariners won the competition for the first time, defeating Al Ahed 1–0 in the final.[4][5] Central Coast Mariners' victory meant that Australia became the first nation to have had clubs winning both the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup, following Western Sydney Wanderers' victory in the 2014 AFC Champions League.