2015 AFC Champions League
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 4 February – 21 November 2015 |
| Teams | 49 (from 21 associations) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |
 Guangzhou Evergrande (2nd title)
|
| Runners-up |
 Al-Ahli
|
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 143 |
| Goals scored | 392 (2.74 per match) |
| Attendance | 2,288,863 (16,006 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
 Ricardo Goulart (8 goals)
|
| Best player |
Ricardo Goulart
|
The 2015 AFC Champions League was the 34th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 13th under the current AFC Champions League title.
Guangzhou Evergrande won the tournament after defeating Al-Ahli in the final. Guangzhou also qualifed for the 2015 FIFA Club World Cup.
Western Sydney Wanderers were the defending champions, but they were eliminated in the group stage.
The AFC Competitions Committee proposed a revamp of the AFC club competitions on 25 January 2014, which was ratified by the AFC Executive Committee on 16 April 2014. The member associations 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:
The AFC Competitions Committee finalised the slot allocation for the 2015 and 2016 editions of the AFC Champions League based on the criteria, including AFC's MA rankings and the implementation of club licensing regulations, on 28 November 2014.
The following 49 teams from 21 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.
The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).
The bracket for the qualifying play-off, which consisted of three rounds (preliminary round 1, preliminary round 2, and play-off round), was determined by the AFC based on the association ranking of each team. Each tie was played as a single match, with the team from the higher-ranked association hosting the match. Extra time and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary. The winners of each tie in the play-off round advanced to the group stage to join the 24 automatic qualifiers. All losers in each round which were from associations with only play-off slots entered the 2015 AFC Cup group stage.
...
Wikipedia