All you need to know about the domestic league structure of India's 2023 AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers rivals

The Indian national team are clubbed alongside Afghanistan, Cambodia and Hong Kong in Group D of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup final round qualifiers.

With Group D matches to be played at a centralised venue, the Blue Tigers are set to play Cambodia on June 8 at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata, with fixtures against Afghanistan and Hong Kong at the same venue on June 11 and 14 respectively.

After participating in the 2019 Asian Cup finals, Igor Stimac's men will be looking to qualify for the final event for the second successive time.

While the top-tier Indian domestic league season is set to start in October with the commencement of the Indian Super League (ISL), let us have a look at the league system of India's opponents. 

Afghanistan

AFF

Football in Afghanistan took a while to take off. It took the Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF), which was formed in 1922, until 1948 to get themselves affiliated with FIFA and partake in the 1948 Summer Olympics.

Much before a robust football structure was adopted in the country, the first domestic league of the region would be known as the Kabul City League in 1946. Years later, in 2006, the Kabul Premier League was formed which was eventually succeeded by the Afghan Premier League (APL) to extend the sport across the 34 provinces of the country.

Launched in 2012, the APL presently consists of eight teams and the new season is usually held in the last quarter of the year. The only exception was the 2021 season where only six teams participated due to financial constraints, with each team playing only five games in a single round-robin schedule.

Reigning champions Shaheen Asmayee, who won a record six domestic titles, was the first club to represent Afghanistan in the AFC Cup in 2017.

Cambodia

The Football Federation of Cambodia (FFC) was formed in 1933 and it gained FIFA affiliation in 1953.

The Cambodian Premier League is the elite football division that comes under the aegis of the Cambodian Football League Company (CFLC) with eight teams competing from the 2022 season. The league operates on a promotion and relegation basis with the Cambodian League 2 being the second division.

Domestic football has been in existence in Cambodia since 1982. The domestic league was known as Cambodian League or C-League in the 2000s but was rebranded as the Cambodian Premier League in 2021.

In 2022, eight teams are competing in a triple round-robin format in the Cambodian Premier League and the winner qualifies for the 2023-24 AFC Champions League group stage.

The Hun Sen Cup and the Cambodian Super Cup are the domestic cup competitions in the country.

Hong Kong

Goal

Hong Kong has a very old cup competition known as the Hong Kong Senior Shield. It was founded as Hong Kong Football Cup in 1895.

Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA) has been in force since 1914. The top flight league currently is the Hong Kong Premier League which was established in the 2014-15 season. The lower divisions range from the Hong Kong First Division (D1 League), the Second Division League (D2 League), and the Third Division League (D3 League).

Cup competitions organised by the HKFA include the HK FA Cup, Senior Shield, HK League Cup, Sapling Cup and the Community Cup.

The league is played in a home and away format but the Coronavirus pandemic has played spoiled sport since the last few seasons and the remainder of the 2021-22 season had to be cancelled after just four rounds. The HKFA announced that the upcoming season will see 10 teams participate, as opposed to 8 last season.

Interestingly, Hong Kong champions Kitchee SC have advanced to the knockouts of the 2022 AFC Champions League.