Qualification to the competition initially was for clubs from AFC-affiliated countries which fall into the AFC's
emerging nations category as laid out in their
Vision Asia document. Between 8 and 12 clubs participated in each edition of the competition. From 2005 to 2007, 8 clubs were placed in the two groups of 4. The winners and runners up would advance to the semi-final stage. All the matches were held in a single host country. From 2008 to 2010, the tournament was increased to 11 clubs. A qualification round was created and clubs were split into three groups. Each group was played in a different country. The three group winners and the best ranked runner up qualified for the final stage. From 2011 to 2014, the tournament was increased to 12 clubs. In the qualification round, there were three groups of 4 clubs. The group winners and runners up qualified for the final stage. These 6 clubs were broken into two groups of 3. The top clubs of each group qualified for the final. In November 2013 the AFC announced that the
2014 AFC President's Cup would be the last edition of the tournament. Starting from 2015, league champions of "emerging countries" are eligible to participate in the
AFC Cup qualifying play-off. The
qualifying round for the
2016 AFC Cup, with similar format to the AFC President's Cup (without final stage), was held in August 2015, which qualified two clubs to the AFC Cup play-offs. After the rebrand in 2024, the new format comprised 18 participating clubs divided into four groups for the inaugural season. The clubs compete in single-leg centralized format, with the top eight qualifying for the quarter-finals. The quarter and semi-finals are played over two legs, before the coveted final is staged over a single-leg contest.
Allocation The allocation of group stage teams by member country is listed below; asterisks represent occasions where at least one team was eliminated in the qualifying rounds. Countries that have not been represented in the group stage are not listed below. ==Prize money==