2019 AFC Champions League
The 2019 AFC Champions League was the 38th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament, organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 17th under the current AFC Champions League title. Al-Hilal defeated Urawa Red Diamonds 3–0 on aggregate in the final to earn a record third Champions League title. As winners, they qualified for the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar. Kashima Antlers were the defending champions, but were eliminated by Guangzhou Evergrande in the quarter-finals on away goals. Association team allocation. The 46 AFC member associations (excluding the associate  member Northern Mariana Islands) were 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 2019 and 2020 editions of the AFC club competitions determined by the 2017 AFC rankings (Entry Manual Article 2.3): Association ranking. For the 2019 AFC Champions League, the associations were allocated slots according to their association ranking which was published on 15 December 2017, which took into account their performance in the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup, as well as their national team's FIFA World Rankings, between  2014 and 2017. Teams. The following 51 teams from 22 associations entered the competition. "In the following table, the number of appearances and last appearance count only those since the 2002–03 season (including qualifying rounds), when the competition was rebranded as the AFC Champions League. TH means title holders." Schedule. The schedule of the competition is as follows.