Asian Football Confederation

The 46 member Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is the governing body of football in Asia, excluding Cyprus and Israel. (Nations with some European and some Asian territory, such as Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Georgia, are instead covered by UEFA.) It was founded in 1954 in Manila, Philippines. The main headquarters is located in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The current president is Mohammed Bin Hammam of Qatar. 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.

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 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 Championship, first held in 1975, as well as the AFC's AFC U-19 Women's Championship and the AFC U-17 Women's Championship.

On January 1 2006 Australia became the 46th member of the AFC. See the list of AFC member states.

Regions

The AFC is split into 4 regions^*. Below shows how the national teams of Asia are split up by region (but are not necessarily part of their regional football federation):

ASEAN Football Federation

East Asian Football Federation

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West Asian Football Federation

Central and South Asian Football Federation

(Although South Asian nations are combined with the Central Asian countries (indicated with a *), they have their own tournament, the South Asian Football Federation Cup and may have their own federation, South Asian Football Federation, although this is not confirmed.)

Competitions

National competition

Regional Tournaments

ASEAN: Tiger Cup (To be renamed ASEAN Football Championship)
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.
East Asia: East Asian Cup
South Asia: South Asian Football Federation Cup
West Asia: West Asian Football Federation Championship (Although not all West Asian Countries enter), Gulf Cup of Nations

Club competition

World Cup Qualifiers

1930 - None
1934 - None
1938 - Dutch East Indies
1950 - None ( withdrew from World Cup after qualifying)
1954 -
1958 - None
1962 - None
1966 -
1970 - (now UEFA)
1974 - Australia (in OFC)
1978 -
1982 -
1986 - , Korea Republic
1990 - Korea Republic,
1994 - Korea Republic,
1998 - Iran, , Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia
2002 - China PR, Japan, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia
2006 - Australia (in OFC), Iran, Japan, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia

Totals (Current members)

, who qualified in 1970, is now a member of UEFA. Australia, who joined AFC in 2006, qualified twice as a member of the OFC, in 1974 and 2006. Indonesia played in 1938 as Dutch East Indies.

External links