Recently, the Asian Football Federation officially announced the increase of the number of clubs in the group stage of the AFC Champions League from 32 to 40 teams. This is due to AFC recognizing the rapid development of Asian football in recent years, as well as giving the Southeast Asia a chance to experience with the continent's top teams.
With this decision of the Asian Football Federation, Vietnamese football will officially have a team to attend the group stage of this tournament starting from the AFC Champions League 2021. Accordingly, the 2020 V-League champions will represent Vietnam at the highest playing area in Asia at club level.
This is a recognition for the impressive achievements of Vietnamese football in the past 2 years. In particular, the achievement of reaching the regional finals of Hanoi FC at the AFC Cup 2019. It is also the first time a team in Southeast Asia has done this.
This season, Ho Chi Minh City club represented Vietnam football in the AFC Champions League play-off round in 2020, but lost to Buriam United of Thailand 1-2.
The runner-up of the V-League is also doing very well at the top of its group at AFC Cup 2020.
In addition to Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore have a place in the AFC Champions League group stage. Thailand, meanwhile, has 2 places for the group stage and 2 play-off places, the Philippines has 1 place for the group stage and 1 play-off. And the Myanmar Championship only has 1 play-off slot.
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