Seoul Grouped with Australian Team in ACL2... Must Travel to Melbourne for Away Match in Second Half

FC Seoul, sprinting toward the KLeague 1 championship, faces a potentially burdensome away trip to Australia in the latter half of the season.

The draw for the 2026-2027 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League Two (ACL2) took place today in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Placed in Group E, Seoul will play its group stage matches against Melbourne Victory of Australia, The Cong Viettel of Vietnam, and the winner of the preliminary playoff (PO) between Persib Bandung (Indonesia) and Manila Digger (Philippines).

The trip to Melbourne, which takes a full day round-trip even with direct flights, is bound to be a taxing schedule for Seoul as the club challenges for its first K League 1 title in 10 years.

Gangwon FC has been assigned to Group H, where it will compete with Kuching City (Malaysia), Kitchee (Hong Kong), and Phnom Penh Crown (Cambodia).

After suffering a 0-1 defeat to Gamba Osaka (Japan) in the playoff due to a controversial refereeing decision disallowing a player substitution, Gangwon will participate in ACL2, the tier-two competition, instead of the AFC Champions League Elite (ACLE).

The ACL2 group stage, featuring 32 teams divided into 8 groups, kicks off on the 15th of next month and runs until December 9. The Round of 16 knockouts, which the top two teams from each group will advance to, begin on February 9 next year.

(Photo: Provided by AFC, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.