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Asian Football Confederation

Iran | Japan | South Korea | Saudi Arabia

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is the governing body of football in Asia (excluding the Asian ex-Soviet republics.). It was founded in 1954. The current president is Mohammed Bin Hammam of Qatar. The AFC runs the Asian Cup, a competition for the national football teams of Asia held every four years, as well as the Asian World Cup Qualifying Tournament.

The AFC also runs three levels of annual international club competitions. The most prestigious (and oldest of the current AFC club competitions) is the AFC Champions League tournament, based on the UEFA Champions League, formed in 2002/03 with the amalgamation of the Asian Champions Cup and the Asian Cup Winners Cup. (An Asian Super Cup competition between the winners of these two major tournaments ended with the birth of the AFC Champions League.) The other competitions branched of this in 2004 when the 'Vision Asia' blueprint for development was launched. This led to the top fourteen AFC nations, the 'mature nations', sending their best teams to the AFC Champions League. The next 14 nations, the 'developing nations' qualify to send their teams to the AFC Cup. The rest of the AFC-affiliated countries, the 'emerging nations' send their teams to the AFC President's Cup. The teams which qualify from each country are usually the champions and the cup winners ^[1]. Currently there is no promotion and relegation between the different levels of nations.

The Asian Ladies Football Confederation is a sub-group of the AFC who manage women's football in Asia. The group was founded in April 1968 in a meeting involving Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. In 1986 the ALFC was merged into the AFC ^[2]. The Asian Ladies Football Confederation helped organise the AFC Women's Championship, first held in 1975, as well as the AFC's women's under-19 and the women's under-17 championships.

On January 1, 2006 Australia became the 46th member of the AFC. Regions

Regions of the AFC

The AFC is split into 4 regions[3]. Below shows how the national teams of Asia are split up by region (but are not necessarily part of their regional football federation):

(Although South Asian nations are combined with the Central Asian countries (indicated with a *), they have their own tournament, the South Asian Football Federation Cup and may have their own federation, South Asian Football Federation, although this is not confirmed.)

Competitions

National competition

• Asian Cup
• AFC Challenge Cup
• AFC Youth Championship
• AFC U-17 Championship
• AFC Women's Championship
• AFC Women's U19 Championship
• AFC Women's U17 Championship

Regional Tournaments

• Asean: Tiger Cup
• Central Asia: Officially only 4 countries in this region (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan left for UEFA). No official tournament held between countries in this region.
• East Asia: East Asian Cup
• South Asia: South Asian Football Federation Cup
• West Asia: West Asian Football Federation Championship (Although not all West Asian Countries enter), Gulf Cup of Nations

Club competition

AFC Champions League
AFC Cup
AFC President's Cup

World Cup Qualifiers

1930 - None
1934 - None
1938 - Dutch East Indies
1950 - None (India withdrew from World Cup after qualifying)
1954 - South Korea
1958 - None
1962 - None
1966 - North Korea
1970 - Israel (now UEFA)
1974 - None
1978 - Iran
1982 - Kuwait
1986 - Iraq, South Korea
1990 - South Korea, United Arab Emirates
1994 - Saudi Arabia, South Korea
1998 - Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea
2002 - PR China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea
2006 - Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea

Totals (Current members)

• 7:
  South Korea
• 4:
  Saudi Arabia
• 3:
  Iran
  Japan
• 1:
  Indonesia
  North Korea
  Iraq
  Kuwait
  China PR
  United Arab Emirates

Israel, who qualified in 1970 is now a member of UEFA. Australia, who joined AFC in 2006, qualified twice as a member of the OFC, in 1974 and 2006.

External links

• Official Website
• Asian Champions League Website
• Asian women's football history
• FootballAsia.com - article on ranking systems for AFC club competitions

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This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.