2025–26 AFC Challenge League
The 2025–26 AFC Challenge League is the 12th edition of the Asia's third-tier continental club football competition, organized by the Asian Football Confederation, and the second under the AFC Challenge League title.
Arkadag are the reigning champions, but will not defend their title as the winner of the Challenge League automatically qualifies for the Champions League Two group stage.
The winner will be given a direct slot for the 2026–27 AFC Champions League Two group stage, if they have not already qualified through their domestic performance.
Association team allocation
The associations are allocated slots according to their club competitions ranking which was published after the 2023–24 competitions were completed.;Notes
Teams
;NotesSchedule
The schedule of the competition is as follows.Preliminary stage
The bracket of the preliminary stage was determined based on each team's seeding, with the team with higher seeding hosting the match. Teams from the same association could not be placed into the same tie. The winners of the preliminary stage will advance to the group stage and join the 11 direct entrants.West Region
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East Region
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Group stage
West Region
Combinations of matches in the Quarter-finals
The specific match-ups involving the second-placed team depended on which second-placed team qualified for the quarter-finals| Group | QF1 | QF2 |
| B | 2B v 1C | 1A v 1B |
Top scorers
; Note- Goals scored in the qualifying play-offs and matches voided by AFC are not counted when determining top scorer