AFC Champions League 2: East Bengal to play Altyn Asyr FC in preliminary stage; Mohun Bagan get direct berth

New Delhi: Kalinga Super Cup winners East Bengal football club have been drawn to play Altyn Asyr FC (Turkmenistan) in a Preliminary Stage match of the inaugural AFC Champions League (ACL) Two on August 14 at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan in Kolkata.

Four teams, including East Bengal FC, are competing for the two available slots in the ACL Two Group Stage in the West Zone: Bahrain’s Al Ahli will battle it out with Kuwait’s Kuwait SC for the other slot at the Bahrain National Stadium in Riffa.

In the ACL Two, 32 teams will compete in the newly-introduced second-tier men’s club competition. While 27 teams from across 21 Member Associations (MAs) – 12 from the West region and 15 from the East – qualify directly to the group stage, along with the three teams (two West, one East) that will be eliminated from the Preliminary Stage of the AFC Champions League Elite tournament.

As the 2023-24 ISL Shield Winners, Mohun Bagan SG have already qualified for the ACL Two group stage.

The two preliminary stage winners will complete the 32-strong cast for the 2024-25 campaign, where they will be divided evenly into eight groups to contest a round-robin, home-and-away format from September 17 to December 5.