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AFC Asian Cup
Founded	1956
Region	Asia (AFC)
Number of teams	16
Current champions	Iraq (1st title)
Most successful team	Saudi Arabia (3 times Champions and 3 times runner-ups)

"Asian Cup" redirects here. For the cricket tournament, see Asia Cup.

The AFC Asian Cup is a football tournament run by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The winning team becomes the champion of 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. Teams such as Korea Republic, Iran, Japan and Saudi Arabia have earned a spot for themselves in the final matches almost every year. Other teams which have achieved success at times include Iraq, Kuwait, China and the United Arab Emirates.

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

Map of countries' best results.

The 2007 tournament was held in the South East Asian nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. This was won by Iraq beating Saudi Arabia 1-0 in the final on 29 July 2007.

[edit] Results

[edit] 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*)	-
South 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

[edit] Summaries

Year	Host	Final			Third Place Match
Year	Host	Winner	Score	Runner-up	3rd Place	Score	4th Place
1956 Details	Hong Kong	Korea Republic	^[2]	Israel	Hong Kong	^[2]	South Vietnam
1960 Details	South Korea	Korea Republic	^[2]	Israel	Republic of China	^[2]	South Vietnam
1964 Details	Israel	Israel	^[2]	India	Korea Republic	^[2]	Hong Kong
1968 Details	Iran	Iran	^[2]	Burma	Israel	^[2]	Republic of China
1972 Details	Thailand	Iran	2–1 after extra time	Korea Republic	Thailand	2–2 after extra time (5–3) on penalties	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 after extra time (5–3) on penalties	Iran
1988 Details	Qatar	Saudi Arabia	0–0 after extra time (4–3) on penalties	Korea Republic	Iran	0–0 after extra time (3–0) on penalties	China PR
1992 Details	Japan	Japan	1–0	Saudi Arabia	China PR	1–1 (4–3) on penalties	United Arab Emirates
1996 Details	UAE	Saudi Arabia	0–0 after extra time (4–2) on penalties	United Arab Emirates	Iran	1–1 (3–2) on penalties	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 after extra time (6–5) on penalties	Japan
2011 Details	Qatar	To be played			To be played

[edit] 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

[edit] Best performances by region

Federation (Region)	Best performance
WAFF (West Asia)	9 titles, won by Iran (3), Saudi Arabia (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)

[edit] Awards

[edit] 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

[edit] Top scorers

Year	Player	Goals
1956	Nahum Stelmach	4
1960	Cho Yoon-Ok	4
1964	Mordechai Spiegler Inder Singh	2
1968	Homayoun Behzadi Giora Spiegel Moshe Romano	4
1972	Hossein Kalani	5
1976	Nasser Nouraei Gholam Hossein Mazloomi Fatehi Kamil	3
1980	Behtash Fariba Choi Soon-Ho	7
1984	Nasser Mohammadkhani Shahrokh Bayani	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 Yasser Al-Qahtani Naohiro Takahara	4

[edit] Fair Play Awards

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

[edit] Records and statistics

[edit] 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

[edit] 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

[edit] 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

[edit] 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

[edit] 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

[edit] 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

3 times

2 times

1 time

[edit] First-time Participating Nations by year

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: Chinese Taipei
1956: Korea Republic, Israel, South Vietnam, Hong Kong

[edit] 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, 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

[edit] 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
Qatar	7	25	4	11	10	24	34	-9
Uzbekistan	4	14	6	2	6	20	26	-6
Syria	4	15	6	2	7	11	18	-7
Bahrain	3	13	2	5	6	17	27	-10
Thailand	6	20	1	8	11	15	45	-30
Korea DPR	2	9	3	1	5	12	17	-5
Indonesia	4	12	2	2	8	10	28	-18

Team	Part	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Dif
Myanmar	1	4	2	1	1	5	4	+1
India	2	7	2	1	4	5	10	-5
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	6	13	-7
Singapore	1	4	1	1	2	3	4	-1
Cambodia	1	5	1	1	3	8	10	-2
Vietnam	1	4	1	1	2	4	7	-3
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	9	22	-13
South Yemen	1	2	0	0	2	0	9	-9
Bangladesh	1	4	0	0	4	2	17	-15

[edit] References and footnotes

^ Australia competed in their first Asian Cup
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Final tournaments in round-robin format

[edit] External links

[0] Australia competed in their first Asian Cup

[roundrobin-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Final tournaments in round-robin format

[1]

[2]

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