Asian Football Confederation

Asian Football Confederation
Abbreviation	AFC
Motto	The Future is Asia
Formation	8 May 1954
Type	Sports organization
Headquarters	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Membership	47 member associations
Acting President	Zhang Jilong
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 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.

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. 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.

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. 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. Below shows the member national associations of the regional federations.

ASEAN Football Federation

Main article: ASEAN Football Federation

• Australia
• Brunei
• Cambodia
• Indonesia
• Laos
• Malaysia
• Myanmar
• Philippines
• Singapore
• Thailand
• Timor-Leste
• Vietnam

East Asian Football Federation

Main article: East Asian Football Federation

• China PR
• Guam
• Hong Kong
• Japan
• Korea DPR
• Korea Republic
• Macau
• Mongolia
• Northern Mariana Islands
  (quasi member & associate AFC member)
• Palau
  (under consideration as a quasi member & non AFC member)
• Chinese Taipei

Central and South Asian Football Federation

Main article: Central and South Asian Football Federation

SAFF Members

• Afghanistan
• Bangladesh
• Bhutan
• India
• Maldives
• Nepal
• Pakistan
• Sri Lanka

CAFF Members

• Kyrgyzstan
• Tajikistan
• Turkmenistan
• Uzbekistan

West Asian Football Federation

Main article: West Asian Football Federation

• Iran
• Iraq
• Saudi Arabia
• Bahrain
• Jordan
• Kuwait
• Lebanon
• Oman
• Palestine
• Qatar
• Syria
• United Arab Emirates
• Yemen

Competitions

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

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

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

Main article: 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

Main article: Asian Women's Footballer of the Year

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

Main article: 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

Year	Name	Team
1994	Charnwit Polcheewin	Thai Farmers Bank FC
1995	Park Jong-Hwan	Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma
1996	Ma Yuanan	China women's national football 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 national team

AFC National Team of the Year

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 qualifiers

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

Men

Nation	1900	1904	1908	1912	1920	1924	1928	1936	1948	1952	1956	1960	1964	1968	1972	1976	1980	1984	1988	1992	1996	2000	2004	2008	2012	Total
Japan								QF			•		QF	3rd							•	QF	•	•		8
Korea Republic									QF				•						•	•	•	•	QF	•		8
Australia											QF								QF	4th	GS	GS	QF	GS		7
India									•	•	4th	•														4
Iraq																	QF	•	•				4th			4
China								•											•					•		3
Iran													•		•	QF										3
Kuwait																	QF			•		•				3
Chinese Taipei									•			•														2
Israel														QF		QF										2
Qatar																		•		QF						2
Saudi Arabia																		•			•					2
Thailand											•			•												2
Afghanistan									•																	1
Burma															•											1
Indonesia											QF															1
Malaysia															•											1
North Korea																QF										1
Syria																	•									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

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

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

See also: 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)

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

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	9
Australia								•	•	GS	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	R16	GS		3	12
Iran										•	GS			•	•	GS	•	GS	•		3	8
North Korea								QF		•		•	•	•	•			•	GS		2	8
Israel		•	•	•	•	•	•	•	GS	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•		1	18
Indonesia			1S			•				•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•		1	12
Kuwait										•	•	GS	•	•	•	•	•	•	•		1	10
China PR						•						•	•	•	•	•	GS	•	•		1	9
Iraq										•		•	GS	•	•	•	•	•	•		1	9
United Arab Emirates						•							•	GS	•	•	•	•	•		1	7
India				••						•			•		•	•	•	•	•		1*	8
Total	0	0	1	1*	1	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	4	4	5	4		30 (31)

Entrants by year

1930 – None 1934 – None 1938 – Indonesia 1950 – India 1954 – Korea Republic 1958 – None 1962 – None 1966 – Korea DPR 1970 – Israel 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 – Australia, Iran, Japan, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia 2010 – Australia, Japan, Korea Republic, Korea DPR

Totals (current members)

8: South Korea 4: Japan Saudi Arabia 3: Australia Iran 2: North Korea

1: China PR India Indonesia Iraq Kuwait United Arab Emirates

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.

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

Rankings

Men's National Team

Rankings are calculated by FIFA.

AFC	FIFA	Country	Points	+/−
1	22	Australia	832
2	30	Japan	762
3	34	South Korea	714
4	47	Iran	606
5	76	China PR	456
6	77	Uzbekistan	455
7	79	Iraq	439
8	82	Jordan	431
9	89	Saudi Arabia	407
10	91	Kuwait	399
11	95	Oman	377
12	96	Qatar	372
13	97	Bahrain	366
14	100	Vietnam	347
15	106	North Korea	314
16	114	Lebanon	299
17	122	Syria	270
18	130	Thailand	245
19	132	United Arab Emirates	243
20	140	Tajikistan	218
21	146	Indonesia	161
22	147	Yemen	159
23	148	Singapore	155
24	149	Turkmenistan	154
25	150	Malaysia	153
26	152	Nepal	144
27	154	India	141
28	156	Philippines	139
29	157	Bangladesh	138
30	162	Palestine	128

Last updated 15 February 2012

Women's National Teams

Rankings are calculated by FIFA.

AFC	FIFA	Country	Points	+/−
1	4	Japan	2106
2	8	North Korea	1967
3	10	Australia	1956
4	16	South Korea	1845
5	17	China PR	1831
6	31	Vietnam	1640
7	32	Thailand	1636
8	38	Uzbekistan	1565
9	41	Chinese Taipei	1556
10	46	Myanmar	1517
11	54	India	1499
11	59	Iran	1426
13	59	Jordan	1417
14	69	Hong Kong	1342
15	75	Bahrain	1331
16	82	Guam	1300
17	95	Palestine	1197
18	113	Nepal	1080
19	119	Bangladesh	992
20	120	Sri Lanka	965
21	121	Maldives	954
22	124	Lebanon	944
23	125	Pakistan	934

Last updated 23 September 2011

National League (by IFFHS)

Rankings are calculated by IFFHS .

AFC	IFFHS	Country	Points	+/-
1	18	Korea Republic	589,0	1
2	23	Japan	539,0	1
3	38	Saudi Arabia	396,0	1
4	40	Iran	378,5	1
5	43	Uzbekistan	373,5	3
6	53	Singapore	331,0	6
7	60	Thailand	318,5	2
8	66	China	298,5	9
9	67	Qatar	290,5	4
10	72	Australia	267,0	3
11	73	Indonesia	266,5	1
12	75	India	265,5
13	76	Jordan	260,0
14	79	UAE	257,5	2
15	82	Vietnam	249,5
16	86	Lebanon	228,0	3
17	87	Kuwait	226,5	11
18	91	Malaysia	218,0	4
19	92	Syria	216,0	9
20	93	Hong Kong	209,5	2
21	93	Iraq	209,5
22	99	Oman	182,0
23	118	Yemen	118,0	3

Top 100 National League in 2011

Asian Football Clubs (by IFFHS)

Rankings are calculated by the IFFHS.

AFC	IFFHS	Club	Points
1	46	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	159,0
2	47	Suwon Samsung Bluewings	157,5
3	89	Al-Sadd	128,5
4	100	Nasaf Qarshi	124,0
5	107	FC Seoul	120,5
		Sepahan FC	120,5
7	110	Al-Hilal FC	120,0
8	124	Nagoya Grampus	114,5
9	131	Al-Wehdat	111,5
10	135	Cerezo Osaka	110,0
11	140	Muangthong United F.C.	108,0
12	146	Kashiwa Reysol	105,5
13	148	Gamba Osaka	105,0
14	154	Al-Ittihad Jeddah	102,0
15	158	Al-Kuwait Kaifan	100,0
16	160	Esteghlal Tehran FC	99,0
17	169	Kashima Antlers	96,0
18	185	Zob Ahan Isfahan FC	92,0
19	198	Tampines Rovers FC	88,5
20	204	Chonburi FC	87,5
21	208	FC Bunyodkor	86,0
22	213	Al-Shabab Riyadh	85,0
		Arbil SC	85,0
24	221	Qadsia SC	82,5
25	236	Tianjin Teda FC	80,5
26	243	Buriram PEA F.C.	79,0
		Pohang Steelers	79,0
28	258	Sông Lam Nghệ An	76,0
		Persepolis FC	76,0
30	267	Al-Faisaly Amman	75,0
31	271	Sriwijaya F.C.	74,0
		FC Pakhtakor Tashkent	74,0
33	281	Al-Wahda FC	73,5
34	283	Ulsan Hyundai FC	73,0
35	285	Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma	72,5
36	289	Yokohama F. Marinos	72,0
37	299	Home United FC	71,5
38	319	Persipura Jayapura	68,0
39	332	Vegalta Sendai	67,0
		Al-Nasr Riyadh	67,0
41	338	Al Jazira Club	66,5
		Shandong Luneng Taishan	66,5
43	342	Jeju United FC	66,0
44	352	Al Ain FC	65,5
45	366	Dempo S.C.	63,5
46	369	Shimizu S-Pulse	63,0
47	384	Kelantan FA	62,0
		Terengganu FA	62,0
		Hanoi T&T F.C.	62,0
50	384	Al Rayyan Sports Club	61,5
51	395	Al-Ittihad Aleppo	60,0
		Al-Ettifaq	60,0
		Central Coast Mariners FC	60,0

Last updated 30 January 2012

Strongest League in the 1st Decade (by IFFHS)

Rankings are calculated by IFFHS .

AFC	Country	Points
1	Japan	3693.5
2	Korea Republic	3376.5
3	Saudi Arabia	3125.0
4	Iran	3019.5
5	China	2881.5
6	Uzbekistan	2690.0
7	UAE	2526.5
8	Qatar	2462.5
9	Kuwait	2446.5
10	Syria	2196.5
11	India	2171.5
12	Jordan	2089.0
13	Singapore	2048.5
14	Vietnam	1897.5
15	Lebanon	1877.0
16	Malaysia	1874.0
17	Thailand	1795.5
18	Oman	1767.0
19	Bahrain	1758.0
20	Yemen	1610.5
21	Indonesia	1530.5
22	Turkmenistan	1516.0
23	Iraq	1467.5
24	Hong Kong	1423.0
25	Australia*	1321.0

^* In 2005 Australia left the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) with FIFA’s approval and joined the AFC. As of 2006, Australian clubs are affiliated with AFC, and participate in its club competitions. Starting with 2006, then, the Australian league is no longer to be included in the Oceanian, but henceforth in the Asian strongest league rankings. For the world ranking of the strongest league in the first decade of the 21st century, however, both continental rankings will be added for Australia.

Asia’s strongest League in the 1st Decade of the 21st Century (2001–2010)

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.

AFC Final Assessment Ranking for 2011-12 seasons

West Asia

Pos	Member Association	Points (total 800)	Clubs	Spots
				Group stage	Play-off	AFC Cup
1	Qatar	677.9	12	4	0	0
2	Saudi Arabia	668.2	14	3	1	0
3	UAE	645.3	14	3	1	0
4	Uzbekistan	597.6	14	2	1	0
5	iran	593.2	18	2	1	0

	Meet the criteria
	Do not meet the criteria

East Asia

Pos	Member Association	Points (total 800)	Clubs	Spots
				Group stage	Play-off	AFC Cup
1	Japan	771.6	18	4	0	0
2	Korea Republic	708.5	15	3	1	0
3	China	622.5	16	3	1	0
4	Australia	570.4	10	2	1	0
5	Thailand	520.6	18	1	1	0
6	Indonesia	228.7	18	0	1	1

See also

IFFHS Asia's best clubs of the 20th century

External links

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