According to the latest announcement of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Hanoi Police Club - the champion of V.League 2025-2026 is the representative of Vietnam to participate in the AFC Champions League Elite play-off round in the 2026-2027 season.
The opponent of coach Mano Polking's team is Adelaide United, representing Australia. The match will take place on August 11th at Adelaide United's home ground.
According to AFC regulations, teams with higher seed rankings will be entitled to host matches in the preliminary round. Seed selection is based on the rankings of national championships under the AFC member federation.
In the Eastern region, Australia is currently ranked 5th, while Vietnam is ranked 7th. Therefore, Adelaide United is seeded higher and qualified to play at home.
This is considered a particularly important match for Hanoi Police Club because the winning team will win a ticket to participate in the group stage of the AFC Champions League Elite 2026-2027 - the highest club level playground in Asia.
In case of defeat against Adelaide United, the representative of Vietnam will still participate in the AFC Champions League Two group stage.
Notably, the time of the play-off match coincides with the period when the Vietnamese national team gathers to prepare for ASEAN 2026. In the context that Hanoi Police Club owns many national team players, the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) said it will coordinate with the club to develop a suitable force usage plan.
According to VFF, the options for summoning and using players will be implemented flexibly to ensure professional requirements for the national team, and at the same time create the best conditions for Vietnamese football representative clubs to compete in the continental arena.
In the 2026-2027 season, Vietnamese football has 2 slots to participate in Asian club-level tournaments. In addition to Hanoi Police Club participating in the AFC Champions League Elite play-off round, The Cong Viettel - runner-up of V.League 2025-2026 also won the right to directly enter the group stage of AFC Champions League Two.
According to the AFC qualifying table for the Eastern region, Vietnam currently ranks 7th after Japan, South Korea, Thailand, China, Australia and Malaysia.
