Tasnim - The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) draw will be held at 1600hrs (local time), December 13, 2016 at the Hilton Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

AFC has finalized the slot allocations for the 2017 edition of the AFC Champions League (ACL).

Iran's Esteghlal Khuzestan, Iran Professional League champion, Persepolis, runner-up, and Zob Ahan, Hazfi Cup champion, will take part in the event's group stage and Esteghlal will take part at the ACL Playoff.

The official draw for the AFC Champions League A club, who will be allocated a slot in any of the below stages depending on their Member Associations’ (MA) ranking, will progress from one level of the competition to the next one as follows.

Preliminary Stage 1 => Preliminary Stage 2 => Play-off Stage => Group Stage.

Losing clubs from an MA with an ACL direct slot will not participate in the AFC Cup, while losing clubs from an MA with an ACL Playoff slot will join the AFC Cup Group Stage, the-afc.com wrote.

If a club from an MA with an ACL Playoff slot qualify for the ACL Group Stage, then their allocated AFC Cup Group Stage slot will be given to the next eligible club in their MA (standby club).