The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has published an updated club rating based on the results of the completed 2023/2024 season. In this ranking, out of 47 AFC member countries, Turkmenistan is in 19th place, gaining 20,2 points.
Among the countries of Central Asia, Turkmenistan was ahead of Kyrgyzstan (27th place, 15,5 points), but was behind Tajikistan (18th place, 22,5 points) and Uzbekistan (9th place, 47,3 points). The leaders in the ranking were
Saudi Arabia (103,1 points), Japan (97 points) and the Republic of Korea (93,6 points).
Starting from the 2024/2025 season, AFC club competitions will be divided into three levels: Elite Champions League, Champions League 2 and Challenge League. Thanks to 19th place in the ranking, Turkmenistan received the right to field two teams in Asian competitions.
As journalist Alisher Nikimbayev reports on the Telegram channel “Futbolium”, the current champion of Turkmenistan “Arkadag”, together with teams from India, Bahrain and Kuwait, will compete for two tickets to the group stage of the Champions League 2. And the finalist of the 2023 Turkmenistan Cup “Ahal” will directly get into group stage of the Challenge League.