The 2020 AFC Cupgroup stage commenced on 10 February 2020. A total of 36 teams compete in the group stage to decide the 11 places in the knockout stage of the 2020 AFC Cup. The competition has been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic until at least the end of June 2020. On 9 July, it was announced that the remaining group stage matches would return on 23 September with the ASEAN group stage matches and conclude on 4 November in centralised venues.
Draw
The draw for the group stage was held on 10 December 2019, 14:00 MYT, at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The 36 teams were drawn into nine groups of four: three groups each in the West Asia Zone and the ASEAN Zone, and one group each in the Central Asia Zone, the South Asia Zone, and the East Asia Zone. Teams from the same association in the West Asia Zone and ASEAN Zone could not be drawn into the same group. The mechanism of the draw was as follows:
For the West Asia Zone, a draw was held for the five associations with two direct entrants to determine the order of associations occupying the following group positions : A1 and B2, B1 and C2, C1 and A2, A3 and B4, B3 and C4. The direct entrant from Oman and the play-off winners were allocated to positions C3 and A4 respectively.
For the ASEAN Zone, a draw was held for the three associations with two direct entrants to determine the order of associations occupying the following group positions : F1 and G2, G1 and H2, H1 and F2; another draw was held for the three associations with one direct entrant to determine the order of associations occupying the following group positions : F3 and G4, G3 and H4, H3 and F4.
For the Central Asia Zone, the South Asia Zone, and the East Asia Zone, no draw was held. The direct entrants were allocated to group positions 1, 2 and 3 according to their association ranking, and the play-off winners were allocated to group positions 4.
The following 36 teams enter into the group stage draw, which include the 29 direct entrants and the seven winners of the play-off round of the qualifying play-offs, whose identity was not known at the time of the draw. ;Standby teams
Al-Wehdat
Al-Salmiya
Al-Muharraq
Regar-TadAZ
FC Goa
Geylang International
Persebaya Surabaya
Ayeyawady United
Format
In the group stage, each group is played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The following teams advance to the knockout stage:
The winners of each group and the best runners-up in the West Asia Zone and the ASEAN Zone advance to the Zonal semi-finals.
The winners of each group in the Central Asia Zone, the South Asia Zone, and the East Asia Zone advance to the Inter-zone play-off semi-finals.
In the event that a group contains only three teams, it may be played on a double round-robin basis hosted by two of the teams if at least two of the three teams agree to this format.
Tiebreakers
The teams are ranked according to points. If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order :
Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams playing each other in the last round of the group are tied;
Disciplinary points ;
Association ranking;
Drawing of lots.
Schedule
The schedule of each matchday is as follows.
Matches in the West Asia Zone are played on Mondays and Tuesdays. One or two groups are played on each day, with the following groups played on Mondays:
*Matchdays 1 and 2: Groups A and B
*Matchday 3: Groups A and C
*Matchday 4: Group B
*Matchdays 5 and 6: Group C
Matches in the ASEAN Zone are played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. One or two groups are played on each day, with the following groups played on Tuesdays:
*Matchdays 1 and 2: Groups F and G
*Matchday 3: Groups F and H
*Matchday 4: Group G
*Matchdays 5 and 6: Group H
Matches in the Central Asia Zone, the South Asia Zone, and the East Asia Zone are played on Wednesdays. If two teams from the same association are scheduled to play at home on the same matchday, the home match of the lower-seeded team is moved to Tuesday.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only 32 group stage matches had been played before the AFC announced on 18 March 2020 that all matches would be postponed until further notice. On 30 July 2020, AFC announced that the matches in Group F will take place at the Thống Nhất Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City while the Group G ties will be staged in Quang Ninh’s Cẩm Phả Stadium. Plus, AFC had earlier confirmed Maldives as the centralised venue for the South Zone matches in Group E which will take place from 23 October to 4 November 2020.
