AFC Asian Cup

AFC Asian Cup

Founded	1956
Region	Asia (AFC)
Number of teams	16
Current champions	Iraq (1st title)
Most successful team	Iran Japan Saudi Arabia (3 titles each)
2011 AFC Asian Cup

The AFC Asian Cup is an international association football tournament run by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The winning team becomes the champion of Continent Asia and automatically qualifies for the FIFA Confederations Cup.

The Asian Cup had been held once every four years from 1956 until 2004. However, since the Summer Olympic Games and the European Football Championship were also scheduled in the same year as the Asian Cup (2004, 2008, 2012 etc.), the AFC decided to move their championship to a less crowded cycle. After 2004, the tournament was held in 2007 and will be held every four years.

The Asian Cup has been dominated by the top teams in Asia over the years, typically from East Asia or West Asia. Traditional successful teams are Iran, and Korea Republic. Recently Japan and Saudi Arabia are the successful teams and often earned a spot for themselves in the final matches. Other teams which have achieved success at times include Israel (no longer a member of the AFC), Iraq, Kuwait, China and the United Arab Emirates.

Australia is the most recent nation to join the Asian confederation in 2007.^[1]

Results

Most successful national teams

Team	Champions	Runners-up	Third-place	Fourth-place
Saudi Arabia	3 (1984, 1988, 1996)	3 (1992, 2000, 2007)	-	-
Iran	3 (1968, 1972, 1976)	-	4 (1980, 1988, 1996, 2004)	1 (1984)
Japan	3 (1992*, 2000, 2004)	-	-	1 (2007)
Korea Republic	2 (1956, 1960*)	3 (1972, 1980, 1988)	3 (1964, 2000, 2007)	-
Israel #	1 (1964*)	2 (1956, 1960)	1 (1968)	-
Kuwait	1 (1980*)	1 (1976)	1 (1984)	1 (1996)
Iraq	1 (2007)	-	-	1 (1976)
China PR	-	2 (1984, 2004*)	2 (1976, 1992)	2 (1988, 2000)
United Arab Emirates	-	1 (1996*)	-	1 (1992)
India	-	1 (1964)	-	-
Myanmar	-	1 (1968)	-	-
Chinese Taipei	-	-	1 (1960)	1 (1968)
Hong Kong	-	-	1 (1956*)	1 (1964)
Thailand	-	-	1 (1972*)	-
Vietnam	-	-	-	2 (1956,1960)
Bahrain	-	-	-	1 (2004)
Cambodia	-	-	-	1 (1972)
Korea DPR	-	-	-	1 (1980)

* as hosts

# Israel was expelled from the AFC in the early 1970s

Summaries

Year	Host	Final			Third place match
Year	Host	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Third place	Score	Fourth place
1956 Details	Hong Kong	Korea Republic	^{[note 1]}	Israel	Hong Kong	^{[note 1]}	South Vietnam
1960 Details	Korea Republic	Korea Republic	^{[note 1]}	Israel	Republic of China	^{[note 1]}	South Vietnam
1964 Details	Israel	Israel	^{[note 1]}	India	Korea Republic	^{[note 1]}	Hong Kong
1968 Details	Iran	Iran	^{[note 1]}	Burma	Israel	^{[note 1]}	Republic of China
1972 Details	Thailand	Iran	2–1 aet	Korea Republic	Thailand	2–2 aet (5–3) pen	Khmer Republic
1976 Details	Iran	Iran	1–0	Kuwait	China PR	1–0	Iraq
1980 Details	Kuwait	Kuwait	3–0	Korea Republic	Iran	3–0	Korea DPR
1984 Details	Singapore	Saudi Arabia	2–0	China PR	Kuwait	1–1 aet (5–3) pen	Iran
1988 Details	Qatar	Saudi Arabia	0–0 aet (4–3) pen	Korea Republic	Iran	0–0 aet (3–0) pen	China PR
1992 Details	Japan	Japan	1–0	Saudi Arabia	China PR	1–1 (4–3) pen	United Arab Emirates
1996 Details	UAE	Saudi Arabia	0–0 aet (4–2) pen	United Arab Emirates	Iran	1–1 (3–2) pen	Kuwait
2000 Details	Lebanon	Japan	1–0	Saudi Arabia	Korea Republic	1–0	China PR
2004 Details	China	Japan	3–1	China PR	Iran	4–2	Bahrain
2007 Details	Indonesia Malaysia Thailand Vietnam	Iraq	1–0	Saudi Arabia	Korea Republic	0–0 aet (6–5) pen	Japan
2011 Details	Qatar	To be played			To be played

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 ^1.5 ^1.6 ^1.7 Final tournaments in round-robin format

Performances by host nations

Year	Host nation	Finish
1956	Hong Kong	Third place
1960	Korea Republic	Champions
1964	Israel	Champions
1968	Iran	Champions
1972	Thailand	Third place
1976	Iran	Champions
1980	Kuwait	Champions
1984	Singapore	Group stage
1988	Qatar	Group stage
1992	Japan	Champions
1996	United Arab Emirates	Runner-up
2000	Lebanon	Group stage
2004	China PR	Runner-up
2007	Vietnam Indonesia Thailand Malaysia	Quarter-final Group stage Group stage Group stage
2011	Qatar	To be decided

Best performances by region

Federation (Region)	Best performance
WAFF (West Asia)	9 titles, won by Saudi Arabia (3), Iran (3), Kuwait (1), Iraq (1) , Israel (1)
EAFF (East Asia)	5 titles, won by Japan (3), Korea Republic (2)
AFF (Southeast Asia)	Runner-up (Myanmar, 1968)
SAFF (Central and South Asia)	Runner-up (India, 1964)

Awards

Most Valuable Players

Year	Player
1956	No Award
1960	No Award
1964	No Award
1968	No Award
1972	No Award
1976	No Award
1980	No Award
1984	Jia Xiuquan
1988	Kim Joo-Sung
1992	Kazuyoshi Miura
1996	Khodadad Azizi
2000	Hiroshi Nanami
2004	Shunsuke Nakamura
2007	Younis Mahmoud

Top scorers

Year	Player	Goals
1956	Nahum Stelmach	4
1960	Cho Yoon-Ok	4
1964	Inder Singh Mordechai Spiegler	2
1968	Homayoun Behzadi Moshe Romano Giora Spiegel	4
1972	Hossein Kalani	5
1976	Gholam Hossein Mazloumi Nasser Nouraei Fatehi Kamil	3
1980	Behtash Fariba Choi Soon-Ho	7
1984	Jia Xiuquan Shahrokh Bayani Nasser Mohammadkhani	3
1988	Lee Tae-Ho	3
1992	Fahad Al-Bishi	3
1996	Ali Daei	8
2000	Lee Dong-Gook	6
2004	A'ala Hubail Ali Karimi	5
2007	Younis Mahmoud Naohiro Takahara Yasser Al-Qahtani	4

Fair Play Awards

Year	Nations
1996	Iran
2000	Saudi Arabia
2004	China PR
2007	Japan

Records and statistics

Overall top goalscorers

Goals	Scorers
14	Ali Daei
10	Lee Dong-Gook
9	Naohiro Takahara
8	Jassem Al-Houwaidi
7	Behtash Fariba, Hossein Kalani, Choi Soon-Ho, Faisal Al-Dakhil
6	Yasser Al-Qahtani
5	Younis Mahmoud, A'ala Hubail, Ali Karimi, Ali Jabbari, Akinori Nishizawa, Woo Sang-Kwon, Hwang Sun-Hong, Nahum Stelmach, Shao Jiayi

Hat-tricks

Player	Result	Goals	Tournament	Round
Hossein Kalani	3-0	34', 70', 78'	1972	Group stage
Ali Jabbari	3–2	80', 86', 88'	1972	Group stage
Gholam Hossein Mazloumi	8–0	63', 74', 80'	1976	Group stage
Behtash Fariba	8–0	11', 34', 80', 82'	1980	Group stage
Choi Soon-Ho	4-1	26', 53', 78' (pen.)	1980	Group stage
Ali Daei	6-2	66', 76', 83', 89' (pen.)	1996	Quarter-finals
Akinori Nishizawa	8-0	14', 25', 49'	2000	Group stage
Naohiro Takahara	8-0	18', 20', 57'	2000	Group stage
Lee Dong-Gook	3-0	30', 76', 90+1'	2000	Group stage
Mohammad Al-Shalhoub	5-0	35', 78', 86'	2000	Group stage
Ali Karimi	4-3	10', 20', 77'	2004	Quarter-finals

Most tournaments appeared

The tabulated below is the players who had appeared more than four times in the history of tournament.

Player	App.	Years
Mehdi Mahdavikia	4	1996, 2000, 2004, 2007
Li Ming	4	1992, 1996, 2000, 2004
Adnan Al-Talyani	4	1984, 1988, 1992, 1996

AFC Asian Cup winning managers

Year	Head coach	Champions
1956	Lee Yoo-Hyung	Korea Republic
1960	Wui Hye-Deok	Korea Republic
1964	Gyula Mándi	Israel
1968	Mahmoud Bayati	Iran
1972	Mohammad Ranjbar	Iran
1976	Heshmat Mohajerani	Iran
1980	Carlos Alberto Parreira	Kuwait
1984	Khalil Al-Zayani	Saudi Arabia
1988	Carlos Alberto Parreira	Saudi Arabia
1992	Hans Ooft	Japan
1996	Nelo Vingada	Saudi Arabia
2000	Philippe Troussier	Japan
2004	Zico	Japan
2007	Jorvan Vieira	Iraq

Score

Most goals scored in one match, one team: Iran 8–0 South Yemen in 1976
Most goals scored in one match, both teams: Japan 8–1 Uzbekistan in 2000

Attendance

Year	Host nation	Mpd	Total Att.	Avg Att.
1992	Japan	16	316,496	19,781
1996	United Arab Emirates	26	398,008	15,308
2000	Lebanon	26	230,490	8,865
2004	China PR	32	1,020,050	31,877
2007	Vietnam Indonesia Thailand Malaysia	32	724,222	22,632

Participating nations

Participating nations by number of final tournament appearances:

11 times

9 times

China PR

8 times

Kuwait

7 times

6 times

4 times

Indonesia
Israel
Syria
Uzbekistan

3 times

2 times

Chinese Taipei
India
Korea DPR
Oman

1 time

Australia
Bangladesh
Burma
Cambodia
Jordan
Lebanon
Singapore
Turkmenistan
South Yemen

* = 2 times: south Vietnam representative

First-time Participating Nations by year

2011:None
2007: Vietnam, Australia
2004: Jordan, Turkmenistan, Oman
2000: Lebanon
1996: Indonesia, Uzbekistan
1992:None
1988: Bahrain, Japan
1984: Saudi Arabia, Singapore
1980: Bangladesh, Korea DPR, Qatar, Syria, United Arab Emirates
1976: South Yemen, China PR, Malaysia
1972: Thailand, Cambodia, Iraq, Kuwait
1968: Iran, Burma
1964: India
1960: Republic of China
1956: Korea Republic, Israel, South Vietnam, Hong Kong

Qualification Participating Nations by First Participate year

2011:None
2007: Australia
2004: Timor-Leste
2000: Palestine, Laos, Bhutan, Mongolia
1996: Guam, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam, Yemen, Maldives
1992:None
1988:None
1984: North Yemen, Pakistan, Oman, Nepal
1980: Bangladesh, Macau, United Arab Emirates
1976: Afghanistan, South Yemen, Korea DPR, China PR, Saudi Arabia, Qatar
1972: Brunei, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait, [[File:{{{flag alias-old}}}|22x20px|border |alt=|link=]] Bahrain
1968: Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Burma
1964:None
1960: Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, Iran
1956: Korea Republic, Philippines, Republic of China, Malaya, Cambodia, South Vietnam, Israel

General Statistics

Team	Part	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Dif
Iran	11	54	31	17	6	106	40	+66
Korea Republic	11	50	23	14	13	79	53	+26
Saudi Arabia	7	38	18	13	7	57	32	+25
Japan	6	31	17	9	5	58	31	+27
China PR	9	44	16	12	16	72	50	+22
Kuwait	8	36	15	10	11	45	38	+7
United Arab Emirates	7	29	9	7	13	23	39	-16
Iraq	6	25	9	6	10	27	30	-3
Israel	4	13	9	0	4	28	15	+13
Uzbekistan	4	14	6	2	6	20	26	-6
Syria	4	15	6	2	7	11	18	-7
Qatar	7	25	4	11	10	24	34	-9
Korea DPR	2	9	3	1	5	12	17	-5
Bahrain	3	13	2	5	6	17	24	-7
Indonesia	4	12	2	2	8	10	28	-18
Myanmar	1	4	2	1	1	5	4	+1
India	2	7	2	1	4	5	10	-5
Thailand	6	20	1	8	11	15	45	-30
Jordan	1	4	1	3	0	1	2	-1
Oman	2	6	1	3	2	5	6	-1
Malaysia	3	9	1	3	5	7	20	-13
Australia	1	4	1	2	1	7	5	+2
Chinese Taipei	2	7	1	2	4	5	12	-7
Singapore	1	4	1	1	2	3	4	-1
Vietnam	1	4	1	1	2	4	7	-3
Cambodia	1	5	1	1	3	8	10	-2
Hong Kong	3	10	0	3	7	9	23	-14
Lebanon	1	3	0	2	1	3	7	-4
Turkmenistan	1	3	0	1	2	4	6	-2
South Vietnam	2	6	0	1	5	8	21	-13
South Yemen	1	2	0	0	2	0	9	-9
Bangladesh	1	4	0	0	4	2	17	-15

Iran holds almost all major Asian Cup final competition records : most games played (54 followed by South Korea,50), most games won (31, followed by South Korea, 23), most goals scored (106, followed by South Korea, 79), best goal difference (+66, followed by Japan, +27). Iran shares records of most Asian Cup titles (3) with Saudi Arabia and Japan and most Asian Cup final competition participation (11) with South Korea and most semi final appearance (8) with Japan, while Saudi Arabia holds record of finals played (6 followed by South Korea 5 and Iran 3).

References and footnotes

↑ Australia competed in their first Asian Cup

External links

International association football

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Asia	AFC – Asian Cup

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AFC Asian Cup

Tournaments	Hong Kong 1956 · Korea Republic 1960 · Israel 1964 · Iran 1968 · Thailand 1972 · Iran 1976 · Kuwait 1980 · Singapore 1984 · Qatar 1988 · Japan 1992 · U.A.E. 1996 · Lebanon 2000 · China 2004 · Indonesia/Malaysia/Thailand/Vietnam 2007 · Qatar 2011 · Australia 2015

Qualification	1956 · 1960 · 1964 · 1968 · 1972 · 1976 · 1980 · 1984 · 1988 · 1992 · 1996 · 2000 · 2004 · 2007 · 2011

Squads	1956 · 1960 · 1964 · 1968 · 1972 · 1976 · 1980 · 1984 · 1988 · 1992 · 1996 · 2000 · 2004 · 2007 · 2011

AFC Asian Cup squads

Hong Kong 1956 · Korea Republic 1960 · Israel 1964 · Iran 1968 · Thailand 1972 · Iran 1976 · Kuwait 1980 · Singapore 1984 · Qatar 1988 · Japan 1992 · U.A.E. 1996 · Lebanon 2000 · China 2004 · Indonesia/Malaysia/Thailand/Vietnam 2007 · Qatar 2011

AFC football

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Club level	Champions League · Cup · President's Cup · Futsal Club Championship Defunct: Cup Winners Cup · Super Cup

Women's football	Asian Cup · U-19 Championship · U-16 Championship