AFC Champions League Elite™ Finals
Client: Asian Football Confederation (AFC)
Year: 2024
Polymath partnered with the Asian Football Confederation and Asia Football Group to create the brand for the AFC Champions League Elite™ Finals. The brand builds on Polymath's created identity for the Elite competition brand itself, creating an identity that is distinct and ownable, whilst living within the Elite design landscape.
Debuting in 2025, the Finals brand extension introduced a more refined version of the palette using Regal Purple paired with Deep and Light Gold, a combination not seen in the umbrella brand. This created warm, rich textures creating a speciality feel whilst maintaining energy.
The project extended the main identity system across stadium applications, broadcast and bespoke sub-brands for premium hospitality environments. Al-Ahli were crowned champions for 2025’s edition, at a sold-out King Abdullah Sports City Stadium, a fitting backdrop for the first chapter of a competition set to become one of football's premier annual occasions.
Sector
Sports
CATEGORY
Brand Identity | Signage | Merchandise | Motion | Broadcast | Type Design
Stadiums
The brand identity was applied across the full stadium environment, creating a consistent and immersive presence from arrival to the final whistle, culminating in the drone show for the finale. Polymath created unique Finals-edition designs for the match that were displayed across pitch-side boards, LED displays and stadium dressing. From the tunnel to the player benches and corner flags, the Finals brand was impossible to miss, whether you were a player stepping onto the pitch, a fan in the stands, or watching at home.
Premium Experiences
The Finals brand extended seamlessly into the hospitality environment, with bespoke VIP and VVIP identities designed for corporate and partner hosting spaces, suites and premium matchday environments. Each tier carried its own colour palette and treatment, stepping up in richness and exclusivity at each level. Across every touchpoint, the identity maintained the same level of craft and intention as the broader competition brand, with a more focused and sophisticated lens.
Broadcast
The broadcast design developed for the 2025 edition of the Finals competition brought the identity into the digital environment with precision and impact. Designed specifically for screen, the Regal Purple paired with Deep and Light Gold created a unique and impactful visual signature that read with clarity across all broadcast applications.
Fan Experience
The AFC Champions League Elite™ Finals has yearly made itself known as a truly world-class occasion. The 2025 edition of the final at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium drew an official attendance of 58,281, in a 60,000-capacity arena that was reportedly full hours before kickoff, with accounts suggesting the real number inside exceeded even that. The energy surrounding the competition was unmatched, with demand for tickets far outstripping availability and the atmosphere outside the stadium reflecting the scale of what Asian football had built. The brand was at the heart of it all, giving the occasion a coherent, premium identity that held up against the intensity of the crowd and the spectacle of the event.
OTHER PROJECTS
