Asian Football Confederation
|
Asian Football Confederation Logo |
The 46 member
Asian Football Confederation (
AFC) is the governing body of
football in
Asia, excluding Cyprus and Israel. (Nations with some European and some Asian territory, such as Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Georgia, are instead covered by
UEFA.) It was founded in 1954 in Manila, Philippines. The main headquarters is located in Bukit Jalil,
Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia. The current president is
Mohammed Bin Hammam of
Qatar.
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.
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.
Womens 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.
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):
East Asian Football Federation
*
China PR* (Taiwan)
*
Guam*
Hong Kong, China*
Japan*
Macau, China*
Mongolia*
North Korea*
South KoreaCentral and South Asian Football Federation
*
Afghanistan*
Bangladesh*
Bhutan*
India*
Kyrgyzstan*
Nepal*
Pakistan*
Sri Lanka*
Tajikistan*
Turkmenistan*
Uzbekistan(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.)National competition
*
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-17Women's ChampionshipRegional Tournaments
*
ASEAN:
Tiger Cup (To be renamed ASEAN Football Championship)
*
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 NationsClub competition
*
AFC Champions League*
AFC Cup*
AFC President's Cup*
1930 - None
*
1934 - None
*
1938 -
Dutch East Indies*
1950 - None ( withdrew from World Cup after qualifying)
*
1954 -
*
1958 - None
*
1962 - None
*
1966 -
*
1970 -
(now
UEFA)
*
1974 -
Australia (in OFC)
*
1978 -
*
1982 -
*
1986 - , Korea Republic
*
1990 - Korea Republic,
*
1994 - Korea Republic,
*
1998 - Iran, , Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia
*
2002 -
China PR, Japan, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia
*
2006 - Australia (in OFC), Iran, Japan, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia
Totals (Current members)
* 7:
* 4:
* 3:
* 2:
* 1:
, 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.
*
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
