These days, the group stage of the international football tournament of the 2024–2025 AFC Challenge League (Asian Football Confederation) has started in Kuwait, in which the current Turkmenistan Premier League champions – Arkadag FC is competing for medals. Our football players started with a win last weekend, beating Maziya (Maldives) with the score 2-1.

The AFC Challenge League, the third most important club football competition in Asia, aims at promoting football on the continent. 18 teams, divided into 5 groups, are taking part in the competition. 3 groups are seeded in West Region, and 2 groups – in East Region. The Turkmen clubs play in West Region, from which 4 teams will advance to the final – 3 teams that rank first in the group and 1 best team that finishes in the second place in the competition. It is interesting that only 6 clubs, divided into 2 groups, play in East Region. There, too, 4 teams are qualified for the final – 2 top teams in each group. It turns out that only 2 clubs in this zone will not advance to the next stage of the competition, while, 8 teams in Western Asia will remain “overboard”.