2016 AFC Cup


The 2016 AFC Cup was the 13th edition of the AFC Cup, Asia's secondary club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation.
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya defeated Bengaluru FC in the final to win their first AFC Cup title, becoming the first Iraqi team to win the competition. Johor Darul Ta'zim were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the semi-finals by Bengaluru FC.

Association team allocation

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 46 AFC 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 decided on the participation of member associations in the 2015 and 2016 editions of the AFC Cup on 28 November 2014.
The following table shows the slot allocation for the 2016 AFC Cup, which are adjusted accordingly since some of the slots are unused.
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Teams

The following 40 teams from 23 associations entered the competition.
;Notes

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows.

Qualifying round

Group A

Group B

Qualifying play-off

Play-off round

Group stage

Tiebreakers

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Knockout stage

Bracket

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Awards

Top scorers