Asian Football Confederation

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Asian Football Confederation
Formation1954
TypeSports organization
HeadquartersKuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Membership
46 member associations (from 4 regional federations)
President
Mohammed Bin Hammam
Websitehttp://www.the-afc.com

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

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 [1]. Currently there is no promotion and relegation between the different levels of nations.

The AFC is going to revamp 22 leagues in Asia, 10 of them by 2009-2012. This is due to the poor performance / absence of Asian teams in the 2006 World Cup. The reforms include: increasing transparency, increase competitiveness, improving training facilities and forcing the leagues to have a system of relegation and promotion. [2]

The 10 leagues marked for reform are: Australia, Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore, India, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

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 [3]. 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[4]. Below shows how the national teams of Asia are split up by region (but are not necessarily part of their regional football federation). As a rule, because of cultural reasons, only the ASEAN and East Asian regions field equivalent women's teams.

ASEAN Football Federation

Main article: ASEAN Football Federation

East Asian Football Federation

Main article: East Asian Football Federation

West Asian Football Federation

Main article: West Asian Football Federation

Central and South Asian Football Federation

Main article: Central and South Asian Football Federation

(*South Asian countries)

Competitions

AFC tournaments

Regional tournaments

World Cup qualifiers

Totals (current members)

AFC Awards

Asian Footballer of the Year

See Asian Footballer of the Year

Asian Young Footballer of the Year

See Asian Young Footballer of the Year

Asian Cup Most Valuable Player

See Asian Cup Most Valuable Player

Asian Women's Player of the Year

See AFC Women's Player of the Year

External links

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