The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, beach soccer, and futsal in some countries/territories in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

and

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million ...

. It has 47 member countries most of which are located in Asia. Australia, formerly in OFC, joined AFC in 2006. Guam and the

Northern Mariana Islands The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI; ch, Sankattan Siha Na Islas Mariånas; cal, Commonwealth Téél Falúw kka Efáng llól Marianas), is an unincorporated territory and commonw ...

, both territories of the United States, are also AFC members that are geographically in Oceania. The Asian Ladies Football Confederation (ALFC) was the section of AFC who managed women's association football in Asia. The group was independently founded in April 1968 in a meeting involving

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. In 1986 ALFC merged with AFC.

Executive Committee

Member associations

It has 47 member associations split into 5 regions. Some nations proposed a South West Asian Federation that would not interfere with AFC zones.

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, Burma (Myanmar), Republic of China,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, Japan,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

were founding members.

Notes

Former members

Tournaments

National teams

Men's * AFC Asian Cup *

AFC Solidarity Cup The AFC Solidarity Cup is an international football competition for Asian Football Confederation (AFC) member countries who are out of the continental qualifiers at early stage. The tournament was created following the termination of the AFC Cha ...

AFC U-23 Asian Cup The AFC U-23 Asian Cup, previously the AFC U-22 Championship (in 2013) and AFC U-23 Championship (between 2016 and 2020), is a biennial international football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-23 n ...

* AFC U-20 Asian Cup *

AFC U-17 Asian Cup The AFC U-17 Asian Cup, formerly known as the AFC U-16 Championship and AFC U-17 Championship, is a football competition, organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) held once every two years for Asian under-17 teams that also serves as a q ...

* Asian Games men's football tournament * Asian Youth Games boys' football tournament * AFC Futsal Asian Cup *

AFC U-20 Futsal Asian Cup The AFC U-20 Futsal Asian Cup, previously the AFC U-20 Futsal Championship, is the premier youth futsal competition off the Asian Football Confederation It was first held in 2017 and played biennially. From 2021, the tournament to be rebranded "AF ...

* Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games men's futsal tournament *

AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup The AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup is the main championship for beach soccer in Asia, contested between the senior men's national teams of the members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It is the sport's version of the better known AFC Asian C ...

* Asian Beach Games men's beach soccer tournament Women's * AFC Women's Asian Cup * Asian Games women's football tournament * AFC U-20 Women's Asian Cup * AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup * AFC Women's Futsal Asian Cup * Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games women's futsal tournament AFC runs the AFC Asian Cup and the AFC Women's Asian Cup, and the

replace AFC Challenge Cup for a country that has few chances to play in the Asian Cup. The 3 tournaments are held every 4 years. AFC organises the AFC Futsal Asian Cup, AFC Women's Futsal Asian Cup,

, various age-level international association football, youth futsal tournaments and the Asian qualifying tournament for the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

and for football at the Summer Olympics.

Clubs

Men's * AFC Champions League * AFC Cup * AFC Futsal Club Championship Women's * AFC Women's Club Championship The top-ranked AFC tournament for association football clubs is the AFC Champions League which started in the 2002–03 season (an amalgamation of the

Asian Club Championship The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competitio ...

and the

Asian Cup Winners' Cup The Asian Cup Winners' Cup was an association football competition run by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The competition was started in 1991 as a tournament for all the domestic cup winners from countries affiliated to the AFC. The winne ...

) and gathers the top 1–4 teams of each country (the number of teams depend on that country's ranking and can be upgraded or downgraded); this tournament only gathered teams from top country. And AFC Women's Club Championship for women's association football club competition. A 2nd, lower-ranked tournament is the AFC Cup which was launched by AFC in 2004. A 3rd tournament, the

AFC President's Cup The AFC President's Cup was an annual international association football competition between domestic clubs sides run by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) held between 2005 and 2014. The competition targeted emerging football nations, and wa ...

which had started in 2005 was absorbed into the AFC Cup in 2015. AFC runs an annual Asian futsal club tournament, the AFC Futsal Club Championship for futsal club competition.

Defunct

National teams * AFC Challenge Cup *

Afro-Asian Cup of Nations The Afro-Asian Cup of Nations, also called the AFC Asia/Africa Challenge Cup, was an intercontinental football competition endorsed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), contested between repr ...

AFC–OFC Challenge Cup The AFC–OFC Challenge Cup was a football tournament, set up as the successor of the discontinued Afro-Asian Cup of Nations. It was a biannual event, with Oceania represented by the winners of the OFC Nations Cup and Asia alternately by the wi ...

* AFC U-14 Championship * AFC U-14 Girls' Regional Championship Clubs *

Asian Super Cup The Asian Super Cup was an annual football competition between the winners of the Asian Club Championship and the Asian Cup Winners' Cup. The competition started in 1995, but came to an end in 2002 after both major AFC tournaments were merged int ...

Afro-Asian Club Championship The Afro-Asian Club Championship, sometimes referred to as the Afro-Asian Cup, was a football competition endorsed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and Asian Football Confederation (AFC), contested between the winners of the Africa ...

Current title holders

Defunct tournaments

Titles by nation

Rankings

FIFA World Rankings

Historical leaders

;Men's ImageSize = width:150 height:650 PlotArea = left:40 right:0 bottom:5 top:10 DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:12/09/2005 till:25/08/2022 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:2006 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical format:yyyy # A line at the right side of the graph LineData = from:12/09/2005 till:end atpos:65 color:black width:0.5 Colors = id:KSA value:green id:IRN value:white id:JPN value:blue id:AUS value:yellow id:KOR value:red PlotData= bar:Leaders width:25 mark:(line,black) align:left fontsize:S from:12/09/2005 till:12/07/2006 shift:(20,-4) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:12/07/2006 till:22/11/2006 shift:(20,-4) text:" Australia" color:AUS from:22/11/2006 till:13/06/2007 shift:(20,-4) text:"

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

" color:IRN from:13/06/2007 till:04/06/2008 shift:(20,-4) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:04/06/2008 till:02/07/2008 shift:(20,-4) text:" Australia" color:AUS from:02/07/2008 till:12/11/2008 shift:(20,-4) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:12/11/2008 till:02/02/2011 shift:(20,-4) text:" Australia" color:AUS from:02/02/2011 till:12/02/2012 shift:(20,-4) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:12/02/2012 till:06/06/2012 shift:(20,0) text:" Australia" color:AUS from:06/06/2012 till:28/11/2013 shift:(20,-4) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:28/11/2013 till:17/07/2014 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:IRN from:17/07/2014 till:18/09/2014 shift:(20,-4) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:18/09/2014 till:27/11/2014 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:IRN from:27/11/2014 till:18/12/2014 shift:(20,-4) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:18/12/2014 till:07/06/2018 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:IRN from:07/06/2018 till:01/07/2018 shift:(20,0) text:" Australia" color:AUS from:01/07/2018 till:28/11/2019 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:IRN from:28/11/2019 till: 16/09/2021 shift:(20,-2) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:16/09/2021 till: end shift:(20,+4) text:"

" color:IRN ImageSize = width:150 height:650 PlotArea = left:40 right:0 bottom:5 top:10 DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:08/08/1993 till:12/09/2005 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1994 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical format:yyyy # A line at the right side of the graph LineData = from:08/08/1993 till:12/09/2005 atpos:65 color:black width:0.5 Colors = id:KSA value:green id:IRN value:white id:JPN value:blue id:AUS value:yellow id:KOR value:red PlotData= bar:Leaders width:25 mark:(line,black) align:left fontsize:S from:08/08/1993 till:19/11/1993 shift:(20,-3) text:"

Korea Republic South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

" color:KOR from:19/11/1993 till:22/08/1995 shift:(20,-3) text:"

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

" color:KSA from:22/08/1995 till:19/09/1995 shift:(20,-5) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:19/09/1995 till:17/10/1995 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:KOR from:17/10/1995 till:15/07/1998 shift:(20,-5) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:15/07/1998 till:27/01/1999 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:KOR from:27/01/1999 till:24/02/1999 shift:(20,-5) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:24/02/1999 till:18/08/1999 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:KOR from:18/08/1999 till:12/04/2000 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:KSA from:12/04/2000 till:07/06/2000 shift:(20,-5) text:"

" color:KOR from:07/06/2000 till:05/07/2000 shift:(20,-5) text:"

" color:IRN from:05/07/2000 till:11/10/2000 shift:(20,-5) text:"

" color:KOR from:11/10/2000 till:15/11/2000 shift:(20,-5) text:"

" color:IRN from:15/11/2000 till:20/12/2000 shift:(20,-5) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:20/12/2000 till:17/01/2001 shift:(20,-6) text:"

" color:KOR from:17/01/2001 till:14/02/2001 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:IRN from:14/02/2001 till:22/08/2001 shift:(20,-5) text:"

" color:KSA from:22/08/2001 till:21/11/2001 shift:(20,-6) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:21/11/2001 till:03/07/2002 shift:(20,-5) text:"

" color:IRN from:03/07/2002 till:30/07/2003 shift:(20,-5) text:"

" color:KOR from:30/07/2003 till:22/10/2003 shift:(20,-4) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:22/10/2003 till:14/04/2004 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:KOR from:14/04/2004 till:07/07/2004 shift:(20,-5) text:"

" color:IRN from:07/07/2004 till:04/08/2004 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:KOR from:04/08/2004 till:15/06/2005 shift:(20,-4) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:15/06/2005 till:20/07/2005 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:IRN from:20/07/2005 till:17/08/2005 shift:(20,-4) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:17/08/2005 till:12/09/2005 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:IRN

;Women's ImageSize = width:150 height:650 PlotArea = left:40 right:0 bottom:5 top:10 DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:16/07/2003 till:01/01/2022 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:2004 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical format:yyyy Colors = id:AUS value:yellow id:CHN value:red id:JPN value:blue id:PRK value:rgb(0.65, 0.15, 0) # A line at the right side of the graph LineData = from:16/07/2003 till:end atpos:65 color:black width:0.5 PlotData= bar:Leaders width:25 mark:(line,black) align:left fontsize:S from:16/07/2003 till:25/03/2005 shift:(20,-7) text:" China" color:CHN from:25/03/2005 till:28/05/2010 shift:(20,-6) text:"

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

" color:PRK from:28/05/2010 till:25/03/2016 shift:(20,-5) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:25/03/2016 till:24/03/2017 shift:(20,-4) text:" Australia" color:AUS from:24/03/2017 till:01/09/2017 shift:(20,-3) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:01/09/2017 till:22/06/2018 shift:(20,-3) text:" Australia" color:AUS from:22/06/2018 till:28/09/2018 shift:(20,-3) text:" Japan" color:JPN from:28/09/2018 till:20/08/2021 shift:(20,-3) text:" Australia" color:AUS from:20/08/2021 till:end shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:PRK

Team of the Year

Men's elo rankings

World Football Elo Ratings The World Football Elo Ratings are a ranking system for men's national association football teams that is published by the website eloratings.net. It is based on the Elo rating system but includes modifications to take various football-specific va ...

for AFC members:

Club Competitions Ranking

The

AFC Club Competitions Ranking The AFC Club Competitions Ranking is a ranking system launched by the AFC in 2014. The ranking is based on the results of teams participating in the last four years of the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup. The ranking is used for determine slot ...

ranks its member associations by results in the AFC competitions. Rankings are calculated by AFC. Listed here are the top 30 countries.

Beach soccer national teams

Rankings are calculated by

Beach Soccer Worldwide Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) is the organisation responsible for the founding and growth of association football's derivative sport of beach soccer. The founding partners of BSWW codified the rules of beach soccer in 1992, with BSWW as it is know ...

(BSWW).

Men's futsal

Per 16 May 2022: a number between brackets is the rank of the previous week. (*)= Provisional ranking (played at least 10 matches) (**)= Inactive for more than 24 months

Women's futsal

AFC Women's National Futsal Team Ranking by The Roon Ba
br>Update: March 2022

Tournament record

;Legend * – Champion * – Runner-up * – Third place * – Fourth place *QF – Quarterfinals *R16 – Round of 16 (since 1986: knockout round of 16) *GS – Group stage (in the 1950, 1974, 1978, and 1982 tournaments, which had two group stages, this refers to the first group stage) *1S – First knockout stage (1934–1938 Single-elimination tournament) * — Qualified for upcoming tournament * — Did not qualify * — Did not enter / withdrawn / banned / disqualified * — Hosts For each tournament, the flag of the host country and the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown.

FIFA World Cup

* '

AFC Asian Cup

FIFA Women's World Cup

Olympic Games For Women

AFC Women's Asian Cup

Notes:

Olympic Games For Men

FIFA U-20 World Cup

FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup

FIFA U-17 World Cup

FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup

FIFA Futsal World Cup

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

FIFA Confederations Cup

Controversy

AFC Champions League

2020 AFC Champions League The 2020 AFC Champions League was the 39th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 18th under the current AFC Champions League title. Ulsan Hyundai won their second Champion ...

, the

Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran The Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI) ( fa, فدراسیون فوتبال جمهوری اسلامی ایران, Federâsion-è Futbâl-è Jomhuri-ye Eslâmi-ye Irân) is the governing body of association football in Iran. Formed ...

received a letter from AFC on 17 January 2020 announcing that teams from Iran would not be allowed to host their home matches in their country due to security concerns. The 4 AFC Champions League teams from Iran announced on 18 January 2020 that they would withdraw from the tournament if the ban was not reversed. AFC announced on 23 January 2020 that any group stage matches which the Iranian teams were supposed to host on matchdays 1, 2 and 3 would be switched with the corresponding away matches to allow time to reassess the security concerns in the country.

World Cup qualifiers

Tensions between the 2 Koreas during the

2010 World Cup qualification Qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Ocea ...

had led

to withdraw from hosting South Korean team and refusing to display the South Korean flag and play their national anthem. As a result, North Korea's home matches were moved to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

. During the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, North Korea reluctantly agreed to host the South Korean team in

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populat ...

, the first time North Korea hosted South Korea at home in a competitive match. North Korean government banned supporters from entering the stadium. The match ended a goalless draw, and as for the result of controversies, South Korea decided to pull out the bid for the

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup is scheduled to be the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup competition, the quadrennial international women's football championship contested by the women's national association football teams organised ...

, and accused North Korea of political meddling in sports. AFC was accused of doing little about the case, which led to AFC to decide the final of the

2019 AFC Cup The 2019 AFC Cup was the 16th edition of the AFC Cup, Asia's secondary club association football, football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Al Ahed FC, Al-Ahed won the title for the first time, defeating 4.25 SC, ...

would not be hosted in North Korea. On 9 March 2020, FIFA announced in a statement that matches between Asian qualifiers for World Cup 2022, which were scheduled for March and June, are postponed to a later time. The decision has been made due to the spread of

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...

. On 12 August 2020, FIFA and AFC have jointly decided that the upcoming qualifying matches for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and AFC Asian Cup China 2023, originally scheduled to take place during the international match windows in October and November 2020, will be rescheduled to 2021.

References

External links

Official website
{{Asian Sports Federations Articles which contain graphical timelines FIFA confederations International organisations based in Malaysia Organisations based in Kuala Lumpur Sports organizations established in 1954 1954 establishments in Asia 1954 establishments in the Philippines