The bracket of the qualifying play-offs for each region was determined based on the آسیا قهرمانلار لیگی ۲۰۲۰ of each team, with the team from the higher-ranked association hosting the match.[۴] Teams from the same association could not be placed into the same tie. The eight winners of the play-off round (four each from both West Region and East Region) advanced to the آسیا قهرمانلار لیگی ۲۰۲۰ قروپ مرحلهسی to join the 24 direct entrants. All losers in each round from associations with only play-off slots entered the AFC Cup group stage.
^The match between Bunyodkor and Al-Zawraa, originally to be played on 21 January 2020, was re-scheduled to 22 January 2020, to avoid a clash with the match between Lokomotiv Tashkent and Istiklol, also to be played in Tashkent, on the same day.[۵]
^ ۴٫۰۴٫۱۴٫۲۴٫۳The ایران فوتبال فدراسیونو received a letter from the آسیا فوتبال کونفدراسیونو on 17 January 2020 announcing that teams from Iran would not be allowed to host their home matches in their country due to security concerns.[۶][۷] The four AFC Champions League teams from Iran announced on 18 January 2020 that they would withdraw from the tournament if the ban was not reversed.[۸][۹] As a result, the two preliminary round 2 matches which the Iranian teams were supposed to host, Shahr Khodro against Al-Riffa and Esteghlal against Al-Kuwait, were not played as scheduled on 21 January 2020 (at 16:20 یوتیسی ۳:۳۰+ at ایمام رضا ایستادیومو, مشهد and at 18:00 یوتیسی ۳:۳۰+ at آزادی ایستادیومو, تهران respectively), and the AFC announced on 22 January 2020 that the matches were re-scheduled to 25 January 2020 in the ایمارات.[۱۰][۱۱]