Should proposals to change the format of the AFC from 2018 be passed by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the next I-League champions would benefit. The AFC Cup now is split into two zones: West and East with Indian clubs slotted in East zone. In 2008, when Dempo became the first Indian club to qualify for the AFC Cup semi-finals, they met Lebanon’s Safa. The 2014 AFC Cup quarter-finals had a team from Vietnam playing Iraq’s Erbil and Malaysia’s Persipura Jayapura taking on Al-Kuwait. Instead, it would be the performance of its clubs in the AFC Cup where Indian teams have made the knockout rounds every year from 2008 barring once.

Source: Hindustan Times November 28, 2016 07:50 UTC