Asian Football Confederation
200px
Abbreviation	AFC
Motto	The Future is Asia
Formation	8 May 1954 (1954-05-08) (58 years ago)
Type	Sports organization
Headquarters	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Region served	Asia
Membership	47 member associations
Acting President	Zhang Jilong
Vice-president	Moya Dodd[1]
General Secretary	Alex Soosay[2]
Parent organization	FIFA
Website	www.The-AFC.com

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC), is the governing body of association football in Asia. It has 46 member countries, mostly located on the Asian continent. However, due to the ill-defined boundary of Europe and Asia, nations such as Russia and Turkey which are located mostly in geographic Asia are instead members of the UEFA. Also nations such as Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and even Israel are included in the UEFA instead, even though they are not only geographically part of Asia, but culturally as well. On the other hand, Australia, formerly in the OFC, has been in the AFC since 2006, in the same way as the Oceanian nations of Guam and Northern Mariana Islands, which are also members of AFC.

The AFC was founded on 8 May 1954 in Manila, Philippines, and is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The main headquarters is located in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The current acting president is Zhang Jilong of China.

Formation[link]

The AFC was formed officially on 8 May 1954 in Manila, Philippines, on the sidelines of the second Asian Games. The 12 founder members were Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea Republic, Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam.^[3]

AFC competitions[link]

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. It also runs the Asian Olympics 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 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.^[4] Currently there is no promotion and relegation between the different levels of nations.

The AFC plans to revamp 22 leagues in Asia, 10 of them by 2009–2012. This is due to the poor performance of Asian teams in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The reforms include increasing transparency, increasing competitiveness, improving training facilities, and forcing the leagues to have a system of relegation and promotion.^[5]

The 10 leagues marked for reform are Australia, Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore, India, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. The proposal would mark a radical change in Australia, where professional leagues in all sports are organised on a model of franchised teams and closed league membership.

There are 12 AFC Nations that play in the UAFA organised Arab Nations Cup, namely: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

Women's football in Asia[link]

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.^[6] The Asian Ladies Football Confederation helped organise the AFC Women's Asian Cup, first held in 1975, as well as the AFC's AFC U-19 Women's Championship and the AFC U-17 Women's Championship.

Regions[link]

The AFC has 46 member associations split into four regions.^[3] Below shows the member national associations of the regional federations.

Competitions[link]

AFC tournaments[link]

Regional tournaments[link]

• ASEAN: ASEAN Football Championship (formerly known as the Tiger Cup prior to 2007 and AFF Suzuki Cup since 2008).
• Central and South Asia:
  • 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.
  • South Asia: SAFF Championship.
• East Asia: East Asian Football Championship.
• West Asia: West Asian Football Federation Championship (Although not all West Asian Countries enter), Gulf Cup of Nations.

Current champions[link]

Men's Asian Cup	Men's U-19	Men's U-16	Challenge Cup	Champions League	President's Cup	ASEAN	SAFF
Japan	North Korea	North Korea	North Korea	Al-Sadd	Taiwan Power Company	Malaysia	India
Women's Asian Cup	Women's U-19	Women's U-16	Futsal	AFC Cup	Futsal Club	EAFF	WAFF
Australia	Japan	Japan	Iran	Nasaf Qarshi	Nagoya Oceans	China PR	Kuwait

Sponsors[link]

The following are the sponsors of AFC (named "AFC Partners"):

• Nike
• Nikon Corporation
• Fly Emirates
• Toyota Motor
• Yanmar
• ING
• EPSON
• Qatar Petroleum
• Qatar Telecom
• DHL
• Pocari Sweat

Awards[link]

Asian Footballer of the Year[link]

The Asian Footballer of the Year award is presented to the best football player from Asia. Officially awarded since 1994, its official name is Asian Football Confederation's Sanyo Player of the Year Award. Prior to 1994 it was awarded on an unofficial basis; the winners from 1988 to 1991 were chosen by IFFHS.

AFC Women's Player of the Year[link]

Year	Place	Name	Nation	Club
1999	1st	Sun Wen	China PR
2000-2002	No award
2003	1st	Bai Jie	China PR
2004	1st	Homare Sawa	Japan	NTV Beleza
2005	1st	Natsuko Hara	Japan
2006	1st	Ma Xiaoxu	China PR	Dalian Shide
2007	1st	Ri Kum Suk	North Korea	4.25
2008	1st	Homare Sawa	Japan	NTV Beleza
	2nd	Ri Kum Suk	North Korea	4.25
	3rd	Aya Miyama	Japan	Okayama Yunogo Belle
2009	No award
2010	1st	Kate Gill	Australia	Perth Glory
2011	1st	Aya Miyama	Japan	Okayama Yunogo Belle

Asian Young Footballer of the Year[link]

The Asian Young Footballer of the Year award is presented to the best young football player from Asia. Officially awarded since 1995 with the first award being given to Omani player, Mohammed Al-Kathiri.

AFC Coach of the Year[link]

Year	Name	Team
1994	Charnwit Polcheewin	Thai Farmers Bank FC
1995	Park Jong-Hwan	Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma
1996	Ma Yuanan	China women's national team
1997	Cha Bum-Kun	Korea Republic national team
1998	Takashi Kuwahara	Júbilo Iwata
1999	Mahmoud Rakhimov
2000	Philippe Troussier	Japan national team
2001	Nasser Al-Johar	Saudi Arabia national team
2002	Guus Hiddink	Korea Republic national team
2003	Cha Kyung-Bok	Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma
2004	Adnan Hamad	Iraq national team
2005	No award
2006	Choe Kwang-Sok	Korea DPR women's U-20 national team
2007	Rauf Inileev	Uzbekistan national team
2008	Akira Nishino	Gamba Osaka
2009	Huh Jung-Moo	Korea Republic national team
2010	Takeshi Okada	Japan national team
2011	Norio Sasaki	Japan women's national team

AFC National Team of the Year[link]

Year	National Team (men)	National Team (women)
2000	Japan
2001	China PR
2002	South Korea
2003	Iraq
2004	Japan
2005	Japan
2006	Australia
2007	Iraq	North Korea
2008	Japan	North Korea
2009	South Korea	Japan U-20
2010	Japan	Australia
2011	Japan	Japan

Summer Olympics[link]

Legend

• 1st – Champions
• 2nd – Runners-up
• 3rd – Third place
• 4th – Fourth place
• GS – Group stage
• Q — Qualified for upcoming tournament
•  ••  — Qualified but withdrew
•  •  — Qualified
•  ×  — Did not enter / Withdrew from the Olympics or Withdrew from the Olympics / Banned
•    — Hosts

Men[link]

Nation	1900	1904	1908	1912	1920	1924	1928	1936	1948	1952	1956	1960	1964	1968	1972	1976	22x20px 1980	1984	1988	1992	1996	2000	2004	2008	2012	Total
Japan								QF			•		QF	3rd							•	QF	•	•	q	9
South Korea									QF				•						•	•	•	•	QF	•	q	9
Australia											QF								QF	4th	•	•	QF	•		7
India									•	•	4th	•														4
Iraq																	QF	•	•				4th			4
China PR								•											•					•		3
Iran[notes 1]													•		•	QF										3
Kuwait																	QF			•		•				3
Chinese Taipei									•			•														2
Israel														QF		QF										2
Qatar																		•		QF						2
Saudi Arabia																		•			•					2
Thailand											•			•												2
Afghanistan									•																	1
Myanmar															•											1
Indonesia											QF															1
Malaysia[notes 1]															•											1
North Korea																QF										1
Syria																	•									1
United Arab Emirates																									q	1
Total	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	4	1	5	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4		56

Women[link]

Nation	1996	2000	2004	2008	2012	Total
Japan	GS		QF	4th	q	4
China PR	2nd	GS	GS	QF		4
Australia		GS	QF			2
North Korea				GS	q	2
Total	2	2	3	3	2	12

Notes[link]

FIFA World Cup[link]

Legend

• 1st – Champion
• 2nd – Runner-up
• 3rd – Third place
• 4th – Fourth place
• QF – Quarterfinals
• R16 – Round of 16 (since 1986: knockout round of 16)
• GS – Group Stage
• 1S – First Knockout Stage (1934–1938 Single-elimination tournament)
•  ••  — Qualified but withdrew
•  •  — Did not qualify
•     — Did not enter / Withdrew / Banned
•     — Hosts

Men[link]

Team	1930	1934	1938	1950	1954	1958	1962	1966	1970	1974	1978	1982	1986	1990	1994	1998	2002	2006	2010	2014	Total	inclusive WC Qual.
South Korea					GS		•		•	•	•	•	GS	GS	GS	GS	4th	GS	R16		8	13
Japan					•		•		•	•	•	•	•	•	•	GS	R16	GS	R16		4	13
Saudi Arabia											•	•	•	•	R16	GS	GS	GS	•	•	4	10
Iran[notes 1]										•	GS			•	•	GS	•	GS	•		3	8
Australia[notes 2]								•	•	GS	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	R16	GS		3	12
North Korea								QF		•		•	•	•	•			•	GS	•	2	9
Iraq										•		•	GS	•	•	•	•	•	•		1	9
United Arab Emirates						•							•	GS	•	•	•	•	•	•	1	9
India				••						•			•		•	•	•	•	•	•	1*	9
China PR						•						•	•	•	•	•	GS	•	•	•	1	10
Kuwait										•	•	GS	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	1	11
Indonesia[notes 3]			1S			•				•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	1	13
Israel[notes 4]		•	•	•	•	•	•	•	GS	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	1	19
Total	0	0	1	1*	1	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	4	4	5	4		30 (31)

Women[link]

Team	1991	1995	1999	2003	2007	2011	Total
Japan	GS	QF	GS	GS	GS	1st	6
Australia		GS	GS	GS	QF	QF	5
China PR	QF	4th	2nd	QF	QF		5
North Korea			GS	GS	QF	GS	4
Chinese Taipei	GS						1
South Korea				GS			1
Total	3	3	4	5	4	3	22

Notes[link]

FIFA Confederations Cup[link]

Legend

• 1st – Champions
• 2nd – Runners-up
• 3rd – Third place
• 4th – Fourth place
• GS – Group stage
• Q — Qualified for upcoming tournament
•  ••  — Qualified but withdrew
•  •  — Did not qualify
•  ×  — Did not enter / Withdrew from the Cup of the Confederation or Withdrew from the Confederations Cup / Banned
•    — Hosts

Team	1992	1995	1997	1999	2001	2003	2005	2009	2013	Years
Japan	•	GS	•	•	2nd	GS	GS	•	Q	5
Saudi Arabia	2nd	GS	GS	4th	•	•	•	•	•	4
Australia [8]	×	×	2nd	•	3rd	•	GS	•	•	3
Iraq	×	×	•	•	•	•	•	GS	•	1
South Korea	×	•	•	•	GS	•	•	•	•	1
United Arab Emirates	•	•	GS	•	•	•	•	•	•	1
Total	1	2	2	1	2	1	1	1	1

Notes[link]

Rankings[link]