The West Asian Football Federation (WAFF; ar, اتحاد غرب آسيا لكرة القدم, Ittiḥād Gharb Āsiyā li-Kurat al-Qadam), founded in 2001, is an association of the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ca ...

playing nations in

Western Asia Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Ana ...

. Its founding members are

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 Turkme ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East J ...

and

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. In 2009, three more associations joined the federation:

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it s ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (Middle East, The Middle East). It is ...

and

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast and sha ...

. Four other nations of

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an a ...

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...

and

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 List of Asian countries by area, fifth-largest country in Asia ...

joined in 2010. Iran left the federation on 10 June 2014 with the creation of the

Central Asian Football Federation The Central Asian Football Association (CAFA) is an association of the football playing nations in Central Asia. In June 2014, the association was in principle approved by the Asian Football Confederation and approved at the Extraordinary Congr ...

. They organize the West Asian Football Federation Championship. Some nations were invited to participate in the competition from outside the region.

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbekis ...

and

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the east ...

, which are not members, were invited to participate in the first edition of the tournament in 2000. The Secretary General is the Jordanian Khalil Al Salem.

Member associations

Current title holders

Rankings

National football team

WAFF Men's National Football Team Ranking by FIFA
br>Update: 23 June 2022 Leading Men's team: ImageSize = width:150 height:500 PlotArea = left:40 right:0 bottom:5 top:10 DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:15/05/2001 till:24/10/2019 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:2002 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical format:yyyy Colors = id:UAE value:white id:IRN value:red id:JOR value:black id:KSA value:green id:QAT value:yellow PlotData= bar:Leaders width:25 mark:(line,black) align:left fontsize:S from:15/05/2001 till:05/06/2014 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:IRN from:05/06/2014 till:23/10/2014 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:JOR from:23/10/2014 till:04/02/2016 shift:(20,-4) text:"

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

" color:UAE from:04/02/2016 till:07/02/2019 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:KSA from:07/02/2019 till:end shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:QAT

Women's national football team

WAFF Women's National Football Team Ranking by FIFA
br>Update: 13 October 2022 Leading Women's team: ImageSize = width:150 height:300 PlotArea = left:40 right:0 bottom:5 top:10 DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/2010 till:28/10/2022 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:2010 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical format:yyyy Colors = id:IRN value:red id:JOR value:black id:BAH value:white PlotData= bar:Leaders width:25 mark:(line,black) align:left fontsize:S from:01/01/2010 till:12/03/2010 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:IRN from:12/03/2010 till:18/03/2011 shift:(20,-3) text:"

" color:JOR from:18/03/2011 till:21/06/2013 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:IRN from:21/06/2013 till:24/03/2017 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:JOR from:24/03/2017 till:23/06/2017 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:BAH from:23/06/2017 till:end shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:JOR

National futsal team

WAFF Men's National Futsal Team Ranking by Futsal World Ranking
br>Update: June 2022 *Note: (*) Inactive

Women's national futsal team

br>Update: December 2022 *Note: (*) Inactive

National beach soccer team

AFF Men's National Beach Soccer Team Ranking by BSWW
br>Update: December 2021

Controversy

On 29 January 2015, after the defeat of

and the

during the

2015 AFC Asian Cup The 2015 AFC Asian Cup was the 16th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international association football, football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held in Australia from 9 to 31 January 201 ...

, West Asian Football Federation members reportedly sought to remove Australia from the AFC primarily due to "Australia benefiting hugely from Asian involvement without giving much in return".

References

External links

* * {{AFC teams West Asian Football Federation