Last season’s Liga 1 Indonesia runners-up Madura United are set to travel to Mongolia for their 2024/25 AFC Challenge matches, having been drawn to Group E alongside Cambodian champions Preah Khan Reach Svay Rieng and Mongolian champions SP Falcons.
Unlike the AFC Champions League Elite – which adopted a league stage system similar to the one adopted by UEFA – and the AFC Champions League 2 – which retained the same West-East zonation and group stage systems as the old AFC Champions League – the AFC Challenge League adopts a home tournament system for its group stages, not unlike the ones adopted by the old ACL and the old AFC Cup during the pandemic.
With the absences of representatives from North Korea, Timor-Leste, and Brunei Darussalam, only six teams represent the East Zone in this year’s AFC Challenge League, with the teams being divided into two groups of three.
The aforementioned Group E will be hosted by SP Falcons at the MFF Football Center in Ulaanbaatar, where they will entertain both Svay Rieng and Madura United.
Despite their stuttering start to the 2024/25 Liga 1 campaign as well as having a considerable lack of star power within their squad due to recent cutback in their finances, Widodo Cahyono Putro’s Madura United were expected to ace their way through Group E, although they have to be wary of Svay Rieng, who had claimed some ASEAN scalps in recent years, and SP Falcons, who will be backed by their own supporters at their own backyard.
Group D will be the East Zone’s other group, with Burmese champions Shan United hosting Laotian counterparts Young Elephants and Taiwanese champions Tainan City FC, who are playing underneath the Taiwan Steel FC banner due to sponsorship reasons. The group’s matches will be played at the Thuwunna Stadium in Yangon instead of Shan United’s usual home ground of Taunggyi Stadium.
Both group winners and runners-up will qualify for the knockouts, but with only three teams in each group and each team only playing twice, no margin of error whatsoever are allowed.