Asian Football Confederation

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 disputed 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

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.^[1]

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. 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.^[2] 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.^[3]

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

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.^[4] 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

The AFC has 46 member associations split into four regions.^[1] Below shows the member national associations of the regional federations.

Competitions

AFC tournaments

Regional tournaments

• 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

Sponsors

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

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

Awards

Asian Footballer of the Year

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

Asian Young Footballer of the Year

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

Summer Olympics qualifiers

(Note: Where applicable, numbers refer to the number of teams from each country)

Men

Women

Notes

World Cup Participation and Results

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's World Cup Finals

The following AFC members have competed in the following FIFA World Cups. Teams are sorted by number of appearances.

Entrants by year

Totals (current members)

Notes

Women's World Cup

The following table shows the AFC representatives at each edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, sorted by number of appearances. Australia made its first three appearances in the tournament as an OFC member.

Rankings

National League (by AFC)

This league ranking is used by the AFC to determine the number of participants in the AFC Champions League. The assessments was conducted by AFC Pro-League committee during 2006–2008, and is based on the football competitiveness, professionalism, marketability, and financial status of the league and its clubs. The assessment ranking will be updated every two years, as the next one will be published in November 2010.^[9]

AFC Final Assessment Ranking for 2009–2010 seasons

See also

IFFHS Asia's best clubs of the 20th century

References

External links

• Official AFC website
• Asian Football Confederation at www.SoccerLens.com
• AFC ranking League