AFC Cup

AFC Cup

Founded	2004
Region	AFC (Asia)
Number of teams	32
Current champions	Nasaf Qarshi (1st title)
Most successful club	Al-Faisaly (2 titles)
2012 AFC Cup

The AFC Cup is an annual international association football competition between domestic clubs sides run by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Qualification to the competition is to clubs from AFC-affiliated countries which fall into the AFC's 'developing nations' category as laid out in their 'Vision Asia' document. Countries which are 'mature' nations are entered into the AFC Champions League, and countries which are 'emerging' nations are entered into the AFC President's Cup.

The 'developing nations' are the fourteen 'next-best' countries which lie outside the top-14 countries in the AFC region which send their club sides to the more prestigious AFC Champions League. Before the reform in competition format that took place in 2009, the two competitions were not interlinked as the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League are in Europe, and AFC Champions League losers do not compete in the Cup. Following the reform in 2009, finalists of the AFC Cup meeting AFC's criteria and certain other eligible teams are allowed to compete in the qualifying round of AFC Champions League with the losers of the said round demote to play in the AFC Cup.

Al-Faisaly Club is currently the most successful club in the competition's history, having won their second title in 2006. Clubs from Jordon have won 3 titles and is the most successful nation in the competition. Ever since the inauguration of the competition in 2004, the finalists of each edition have been dominated by clubs from West Asia.

Participating nations and regions

A total of 32 clubs will participate in the 2010 AFC Cup.

Play-off: (2 teams)

• Qatar, Uzbekistan which have one team qualify.

Group stage: (32 teams)

• 1 play-off entries
• 2 teams to qualify: Hong Kong, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Maldives, Oman, Syria, Yemen,
• 1 team to qualify: Bahrain, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, India, Thailand, Vietnam
• 6 losers from AFC Champions League 2010 playoffs. These losers may automatically have been placed in these slots if they failed to meet the AFC Champions League criteria.

Competition format

AFC’s second-tier club competition will also see changes in terms of teams and format for the 2009 edition.

- For the first time in its history, teams from Iraq and Kuwait will join the AFC Cup fray. Syrian clubs reappear in the competition after winning the inaugural edition (Al Jaish) in 2004.

- The other countries are Jordan, Bahrain, Oman, Lebanon, Yemen, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Maldives. Each country has two seats, while Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam will have one team in addition to the club which is playing in the ACL playoff/preliminary stage.

- A total of 32 teams will participate in the tournament (20 from West Asia and India, and 12 from East Asia).

- The teams will be divided into eight groups. Five of these groups will comprise West Asian teams, and three groups will make up the East Asian block.

- Two teams from each group will qualify for the Round of 16, where they will play one single knockout match.

- The quarter-finals, semi-finals will be played over two legs.

- The final will be played as a one-off match.

Results

Two-leg finals

Year	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Location	Number of teams participated
2004	Al-Wahda	2–3	Al-Jaish	Abbasiyyin Stadium	Damascus, Syria	18
	Al-Jaish	0–1	Al-Wahda	Abbasiyyin Stadium	Damascus, Syria
	Aggregate 3–3, Al-Jaish won on away goals
2005	Al-Faisaly	1–0	Al-Nejmeh	Amman International Stadium	Amman, Jordan	18
	Al-Nejmeh	2–3	Al-Faisaly	Al Manara Stadium	Beirut, Lebanon
	Al-Faisaly won 4–2 on aggregate
2006	Al-Faisaly	3–0	Al-Muharraq	Amman International Stadium	Amman, Jordan	20
	Al-Muharraq	4–2	Al-Faisaly	Bahrain National Stadium	Riffa, Bahrain
	Al-Faisaly won 5–4 on aggregate
2007	Al-Faisaly	0–1	Shabab Al-Ordon	Amman International Stadium	Amman, Jordan	24
	Shabab Al-Ordon	1–1	Al-Faisaly	Amman International Stadium	Amman, Jordan
	Shabab Al-Ordon won 2–1 on aggregate
2008	Al-Muharraq	5–1	Safa Beirut	Bahrain National Stadium	Riffa, Bahrain	20
	Safa Beirut	4–5	Al-Muharraq	Sports City Stadium	Beirut, Lebanon
	Al-Muharraq won 10–5 on aggregate

One leg finals

Year	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Location	Number of teams participated
2009	Al-Kuwait	2–1	Al-Karamah	Al Kuwait Sports Club Stadium	Kuwait City, Kuwait	32
2010	Al-Ittihad	1–1 (aet) (4–2 p)	Al-Qadsia	Jaber International Stadium	Kuwait City, Kuwait	31
2011	Nasaf Qarshi	2–1	Al-Kuwait	Markaziy Stadium	Qarshi, Uzbekistan	32
2012	TBD	–	TBD	TBD	TBD	34

Performance by clubs

#	Clubs	Winners	Runners-up
1	Al-Faisaly	2	1
2	Al-Kuwait	1	1
	Al-Muharraq	1	1
3	Shabab Al-Ordon	1	0
	Al-Jaish	1	0
	Nasaf Qarshi	1	0
	Al-Ittihad	1	0
7	Al-Nejmeh	0	1
	Safa Beirut	0	1
	Al-Wahda	0	1
	Al-Karamah	0	1
	Al-Qadsia	0	1

Performance by nations

#	Nation	Winners	Runners-up
1	Jordan	3	1
2	Syria	2	2
3	Kuwait	1	2
4	Bahrain	1	1
5	Uzbekistan	1	0
6	Lebanon	0	2

By Clubs' Statistics

• Indian clubs in the AFC Cup
• Iraqi clubs in the AFC Cup
• Syrian clubs in the AFC Cup
• Thai clubs in the AFC Cup

Top scorers

Year	Footballer	Club	Goals
2004	Indra Sahdan Daud	Home United	7
	Egmar Goncalves	Home United	7
2005	Mo'ayyad Salim	Al-Faisaly	9
2006	Mahmoud Shelbaieh	Al-Wahdat	8
2007	Odai Al Saify	Shabab Al-Ordun	5
	Mohammed Ghaddar	Al-Nejmeh	5
2008	Rico	Al-Muharraq	19
2009	Robert Akaruye	Busaiteen	8
	Mohamad Hamwi	Al-Karamah	8
	Jehad Al Hussain	Al-Kuwait	8
	Huỳnh Kesley Alves	Binh Duong	8
2010	Afonso Alves	Al-Rayyan	9
2011	Ivan Bošković	Nasaf Qarshi	10

See also

• International club competition records

External links

• Official website
• RSSSF - AFC Cup