Asian Football Confederation
The 46 member Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is the governing body of football in Asia, excluding Cyprus and Israel. It was founded in 1954 in Manila, Philippines. (Nations with some European and some Asian territory, such as Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Georgia, are instead covered by UEFA.) The main headquarters is located in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The current president is Mohammed Bin Hammam of Qatar.
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AFC competitions
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 and the AFC Challenge Cup.Asian Olympics Qualifying Tournament Also Have.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 off 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.
Women's football in Asia
The Asian Ladies Football Confederation (ALFC) is the section of the AFC who manage women's football in Asia. The group was independently founded in April 1968 in a meeting involving Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. In 1986 the ALFC merged with 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 AFC U-19 Women's Championship and the AFC U-17 Women's Championship.
On January 1 2006 Australia became the 46th member of the AFC. See the list of AFC member states.
Regions
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). As a rule, because of cultural reasons, only the ASEAN and East Asian regions field equivalent women's teams.
ASEAN Football Federation
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East Asian Football Federation
China PR
Chinese Taipei (Taiwan)
Guam
Hong Kong, China
Japan
Macau, China
Mongolia
North Korea
South Korea
West Asian Football Federation |
Central and South Asian Football Federation
Afghanistan*
Bangladesh*
Bhutan*
India*
Kyrgyzstan
Nepal*
Pakistan*
Sri Lanka*
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
(*South Asian countries)
Competitions
National competition
- AFC Asian Cup
- AFC Challenge Cup
- AFC Futsal Championship
- AFC Youth Championship
- AFC U-17 Championship
- AFC Women's Championship
- AFC U-19 Women's Championship
- AFC U-17 Women's Championship
Regional tournaments
- ASEAN: Tiger Cup (Now ASEAN Football Championship as of the 2007 edition)
- 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 competitions
- AFC Champions League [since 1967]
- AFC Cup [since 2004]
- AFC President's Cup [since 2005]
Defunct competitions
- Asian Cup Winners Cup (clubs) [1991~2001]
- Asian Super Cup (clubs) [1995~2002]
World Cup qualifiers
- 1930 - None
- 1934 - None
- 1938 - Dutch East Indies
- 1950 - None (India withdrew from World Cup after qualifying)
- 1954 - Korea Republic
- 1958 - None
- 1962 - None
- 1966 - Korea DPR
- 1970 - Israel (now a member of UEFA)
- 1974 - None
- 1978 - Iran
- 1982 - Kuwait
- 1986 - Iraq, Korea Republic
- 1990 - Korea Republic, United Arab Emirates
- 1994 - Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia
- 1998 - Iran, Japan, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia
- 2002 - China PR, Japan, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia
- 2006 - Iran, Japan, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia, Australia
Totals (current members)
- 7:
Korea Republic - 4:
Saudi Arabia - 3:
Iran
Japan - 2:
Australia, both times as an OFC member. - 1:
China PR
Indonesia
Iraq
Korea DPR
Kuwait
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.Indonesia played in 1938 as Dutch East Indies.
AFC Awards
Asian Footballer of the Year
See Asian Footballer of the Year
Asian Young Footballer of the Year
See Asian Young Footballer of the Year
Asian Cup Most Valuable Player
See Asian Cup Most Valuable Player
Asian Women's Player of the Year
See AFC Women's Player of the Year
External links
- Official Website
- Asian Champions League Website
- Asian Cup website
- AFC Women's Asian Cup and AFC U-19 Women's Championship
- Asian women's football history
- FootballAsia.com - article on ranking systems for AFC club competitions
Categories
Asian Football Confederation