The 2012 AFC Challenge Cup was the fourth edition of the tournament, an international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

competition for

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in most countries and territories in Asia. The AFC was formed in 1954. It has 47 members. The Asian Ladies Football Confederation ( ...

(AFC) member nations that are mainly categorized as "emerging countries" in the defunct Vision Asia programme. It took place in

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

from 8–19 March 2012. Unlike in previous editions of the tournament, there were no automatic qualifiers. Therefore,

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

champions

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 Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

, runners-up

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

, and third-placed

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

had to navigate the qualification phase in order to return to the finals. North Korea successfully defended their title and qualified for 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 ...

Hosts

Maldives The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in South Asia located in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, abou ...

and

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

expressed an interest to bid to host the tournament. A decision on which country would be hosts was set to be made by the

(AFC) on 14 June 2011, but was deferred until the AFC Executive Committee on 29 July 2011. The committee decided to endorse Nepal as the hosts of the AFC Challenge Cup 2012 Finals.

Venues

Qualification

The qualification stage saw 20 eligible member associations compete in qualifiers. * An initial pre-qualifying round (home and away) narrowed the field to 16 teams. * The final qualifying round consist of four groups of four teams each with the group winners and runners-up qualifying. * Only the eight teams that qualified for the tournament finals were permitted to bid to be hosts.

Qualified nations

* – Qualification Group A winners * – Qualification Group A runners-up * – Qualification Group B winners * – Qualification Group B runners-up * – Qualification Group C winners * – Qualification Group C runners-up * – Qualification Group D winners * – Qualification Group D runners-up

Draw

The draw for the final tournament was held on 1 December 2011 at the Soaltee Crown Plaza Hotel in

Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

Squads

Each team could name a squad of 23 players.

Group stage

''All times are

Nepal Time Nepal Standard Time (NPT) is the time zone for Nepal. With a time offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) of UTC+05:45 all over Nepal, it is one of only three time zones with a 45-minute offset from UTC.The others are Chatham Island Sta ...

(NPT) – UTC+5:45''

Tie-breaking criteria

The teams are ranked according to

points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

(3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss) and tie breakers are in following order: #Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned; #

Goal difference Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...

resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned; #Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned; #Goal difference in all the group matches; #Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches; #

Kicks from the penalty mark In association football, a penalty shoot-out (previously known as kicks from the penalty mark) is a tie-breaking method to determine which team is awarded victory in a match that cannot end in a draw, when the score is tied after the normal tim ...

if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play; #Fewer score calculated according to the number of yellow and red cards received in the group matches; (1 point for each yellow card, 3 points for each red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for each direct red card, 4 points for each yellow card followed by a direct red card) #Drawing of lots.

Group A

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Group B

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Knockout stage

Semi-finals

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Third place play-off

Final

Statistics

Winner

Individual awards

The following awards were given for the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup:

Team of the tournament

The team of the tournament – Dream Team in a

4-4-2 formation In association football, the formation of a team refers to the position players take in relation to each other on a pitch. As association football is a fluid and fast-moving game, a player's position (with the exception of the goalkeeper) in a ...

. *

Goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

: Ri Myong-guk *

Defenders Defender(s) or The Defender(s) may refer to: * Defense (military) * Defense (sports) ** Defender (association football) Arts and entertainment Film, television, and theatre Film * ''The Defender'' (1989 film), a Canadian documentary * ''The D ...

: Ri Kwang-hyok, Şöhrat Söýünow, Khaled Mahdi, Jon Kwang-ik *

Midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

s: Arslanmyrat Amanow, Guwanç Rejepow, Pak Nam-chol I,

Jong Il-gwan Jong Il-gwan (; born 30 October 1992) is a North Korean professional footballer who plays as a striker for DPR Korea Premier Football League club Ryomyong and the North Korea national team. He is the country's all-time top scorer. Club caree ...

* Forwards: Pak Kwang-ryong,

Phil Younghusband Philip James Younghusband Jr. (born 4 August 1987) is a former professional Association football, footballer who played mostly as a Forward (association football), striker and sometimes as a midfielder. Younghusband is best known for his perfo ...

*Coach: Yun Jong-su (

)

Goalscorers

;6 goals *

;3 goals * Pak Nam-chol I ;2 goals * Jang Kuk-chol * Pak Kwang-ryong * Abdelhamid Abuhabib *

Fahed Attal Fahed Adnan Foad Abdul Attal (; born 1 January 1985) is a Palestinian former professional footballer who played as a striker. Club career Move to Jordanian Premier League After grabbing the attention of scouts of clubs such as Al-Wahdat with ...

* Ángel Guirado * Arslanmyrat Amanow *

Gahrymanberdi Çoňkaýew Gahrymanberdi Ovezliyevich Chonkayev (; born October 19, 1983) is a professional Turkmen football coach and former football striker. Club career In 2013 with FC Balkan he won the 2013 AFC President's Cup in Malaysia. In the summer of 2 ...

;1 goal * Jang Song-hyok * Jon Kwang-ik *

* Ri Chol-myong * Ri Kwang-hyok * Hassan Adhuham * Mohamed Rasheed * Alaa Atiya *

Ashraf Nu'man Ashraf Nu'man Al-Fawaghra (; born 29 July 1986) is a Palestinian people, Palestinian professional footballer who plays for Shabab Al-Khalil SC, Shabab Al-Khalil of the West Bank Premier League and the Palestine national football team, Palestine n ...

* Houssam Wadi * Juan Luis Guirado * Nuriddin Davronov * Akhtam Khamrakulov * Aleksey Negmatov * Guwanç Hangeldiýew * Ruslan Mingazow *

Berdi Şamyradow Berdi Bayrammyradovich Shamyradov or Berdi Baýrammyradowiç Şamyradow (; born 22 June 1982) is a Turkmen football coach and a former professional player. Currently, he works as assistant manager at Nebitçi FT, FC Nebitçi Balkanabat. Early ...

* Elman Tagaýew ;1 own goal * Biraj Maharjan (playing against Turkmenistan)

Post-tournament team ranking

As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

References

External links

AFC Challenge Cup
{{DEFAULTSORT:Challenge Cup

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

2012 in AFC football

2011–12 in Palestinian football 2011–12 in Indian football 2012 in Tajikistani football 2012 in Nepalese sport 2012 in Philippine football 2012 in North Korean football 2012 in Maldivian football 2012 in Turkmenistani football