On February 19, the AFC officially announced that Shandong Taishan would not participate in this round's match against Ulsan HD and was considered to have withdrawn from this year's AFC Champions League Elite League. Shandong Taishan subsequently issued an announcement stating that due to the players' severe physical discomfort, the team was unable to participate in this match. Foreign media also paid attention to this matter and analyzed the situation of the AFC Champions League after Shandong Taishan's withdrawal.
Part of the content from the article: In the case of Shandong Taishan's withdrawal, the ranking in the AFC Champions League Elite League has become a major issue. In previous group - stage matches, if a team withdrew, all its game results would be treated as invalid.
However, the rules of this year's AFC Champions League Elite League are completely different. There are 12 teams in each of the East and West Asia semi - zones. Each team has to play against 8 different teams during the league stage, and there are 3 teams that they will not play against.
If all of Shandong Taishan's game results are invalidated, the points of Shanghai Port, Shanghai Shenhua, and Buriram United will not be affected, while the remaining 8 teams will only have points from 7 matches.
Besides this option, the AFC could also decide that the previous results of Shandong Taishan remain unchanged, and only the match against Ulsan HD is counted as a 0 - 3 loss. But if so, Central Coast Mariners, Johor Darul Ta'zim, and Gwangju FC, which had lost to Shandong Taishan before, would feel unfair. Then, should every match of Shandong Taishan be counted as a 0 - 3 loss? In that case, the three teams that have not played against Shandong Taishan would feel unfair.
Anyway, Shandong Taishan's decision to withdraw has undoubtedly thrown the AFC Champions League Elite League into great chaos.