{"id":680261,"date":"2026-05-19T06:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T06:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/680261\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T06:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T06:50:12","slug":"afc-update-on-australias-acl-two-slot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/680261\/","title":{"rendered":"AFC\u00a0update\u00a0on Australia\u2019s ACL Two slot\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"952\" height=\"536\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AFC-ChampionsLeague2_1920x1080.jpg\" class=\"attachment-xlarge_img_16_9 size-xlarge_img_16_9 wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\"   data-attachment-id=\"357571\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/melbournevictory.com.au\/news\/afc-update-on-australias-acl-two-slot\/afc-championsleague2_1920x1080\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/melbournevictory.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/05\/AFC-ChampionsLeague2_1920x1080.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1920,1080\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"AFC-ChampionsLeague2_1920x1080\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/melbournevictory.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/05\/AFC-ChampionsLeague2_1920x1080.jpg?w=1200\"\/>\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Melbourne Victory acknowledges the following update from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>AFC has\u00a0advised\u00a0Football Australia that Heidelberg United FC is ineligible for the direct AFC Champions League Two (ACL Two) slot under AFC regulations. As a result, Melbourne Victory will receive the direct ACL Two slot.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With this, the AFC has confirmed to Football Australia that the direct ACL Two slot for 2026\/27 will be awarded to the next highest-ranked Australian club on the Isuzu UTE A-League 2025\/26 table after Newcastle Jets and Adelaide United qualified for the AFC Champions League Elite under the new extended format.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It is worth noting that Heidelberg United FC satisfied the mandatory criteria set out in the Football Australia\u2019s National Club Licensing Regulations for AFC Club Licensing purposes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Club is excited to compete in the 2026\/27 ACL 2\u00a0and will provide further competition information to Members and fans\u00a0in due course.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gomvfc.com.au\/packages\/202526\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"400\" data-attachment-id=\"357572\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/melbournevictory.com.au\/news\/afc-update-on-australias-acl-two-slot\/2627mem_membershiponsalev2_1200x400\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2627MEM_MembershipOnSaleV2_1200x400.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1200,400\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"2627MEM_MembershipOnSaleV2_1200x400\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2627MEM_MembershipOnSaleV2_1200x400.jpg?w=1200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2627MEM_MembershipOnSaleV2_1200x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-357572\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne Victory acknowledges the following update from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).\u00a0 AFC has\u00a0advised\u00a0Football Australia that Heidelberg United&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[122709,328105,64,63,44011,27013,44,85],"class_list":["post-680261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-afc-champions-league","tag-afc-champions-league-two","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-isuzu-ute-a-league","tag-melbourne-victory","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}