Turkmenistan's “Ahal” Football Club has learned its opponents for the 2026/27 AFC Challenge League group stage: Lebanese “Al-Ansar”, Syrian “Al-Ittihad”, and Bhutanese “Paro”. The draw for the tournament took place at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The current competition will be the third season of the revamped AFC Challenge League tournament. It will feature 20 teams, divided geographically into Western and Eastern Zones. Each group stage participant is guaranteed 100 thousand. The goal of the AFC Challenge League is to promote clubs from developing football leagues across the continent.

“Ahal”, the runner-up in the 2025 Turkmenistan Championship, was placed in group “A” of the “West” zone along with its rivals. Group matches will be held in a centralized format in Bhutan from October 17 to 23, with each team playing each other once.

Before the draw, “Ahal” was seeded in the first basket along with Kuwaiti “Al-Arabi” and Indian “Goa”, which ruled out the Turkmen club meeting these teams in the group stage.

Eight teams will advance to the quarterfinals following the group stage: the three group winners and the best runner-up from the Western Zone, as well as the top two teams from each group in the Eastern Zone. The playoffs will be held in two rounds: the quarterfinals will be held in March, the semifinals in April, and the final is scheduled for May 8, 2027.