The 2014 AFC Cup was the 11th edition of the

AFC Cup The AFC Champions League Two (abbreviated as the ACL Two or ACL2) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation. It is the second-tier competition of Asian club football, ranked below the AFC C ...

, a

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 organized by the

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) for clubs from "developing countries" in Asia. Al-Kuwait were the two-time defending champions, but were eliminated by

Persipura Jayapura Persatuan Sepakbola Indonesia Jayapura, or Persipura, is an Indonesia, Indonesian professional association football, football club based in Jayapura, Papua. The club was founded in 1963 and currently competes in the Liga 2 (Indonesia), Liga 2 ...

in the quarter-finals. In the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

, Al-Qadsia of Kuwait defeated

Erbil Erbil (, ; , ), also called Hawler (, ), is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The city is the capital of the Erbil Governorate. Human settlement at Erbil may be dated back to the 5th millennium BC. At the h ...

of Iraq 4–2 on penalties after a 0–0 draw in regulation time, to win their first AFC Cup title after losing in the previous year's final.

Association team allocation

The AFC laid out the procedure for deciding the participating associations and the allocation of slots, with the final decision to be made by the AFC on 26 November 2013. The following changes to the list of participating associations may be made from the

2013 AFC Cup The 2013 AFC Cup was the tenth edition of the AFC Cup, a football competition organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for clubs from "developing countries" in Asia. In an all-Kuwait final, defending champions Al-Kuwait defeated Al- ...

if the AFC approves the following applications made by any association: *An association originally participating in the AFC Cup may apply to participate in the

2014 AFC Champions League The 2014 AFC Champions League was the 33rd edition of the top-level Asian club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 12th under the current AFC Champions League title. Guangzhou Evergrande were the d ...

. An association may participate in both the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup if it only partially fulfills the AFC Champions League criteria. *An association originally participating in the

AFC President's Cup The AFC Challenge League (previously known as the AFC President's Cup, abbreviated as ACGL) is an annual third-tier continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation. The competition is played among clubs from n ...

may apply to participate in the 2014 AFC Cup. The following changes in the participating associations were made compared to the previous year: *

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Kyrgyzstan, largest city. Kyrgyz ...

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 ...

clubs' participation were upgraded from the AFC President's Cup to the AFC Cup starting from 2014 by the AFC. Each participating association was given either two entries to the group stage or one entry to the qualifying play-off, based on the AFC Technical Ranking and the number of associations in each zone.

Teams

The following teams entered the competition. Teams in ''italics'' played in the

2014 AFC Champions League qualifying play-off The qualifying play-off of the 2014 AFC Champions League was played from 29 January to 15 February 2014, to decide four of the 32 places in the 2014 AFC Champions League group stage, group stage. Format The bracket for the qualifying play-off was d ...

, but failed to advance to the AFC Champions League group stage (had they advanced to the AFC Champions League group stage, they would have been replaced by another team from the same association). ;Notes

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws held at AFC headquarters in

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

Qualifying play-off

The bracket for the qualifying play-off was determined by the AFC. Each tie was played as a single match.

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 ...

and

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

were used to decide the winner if necessary. The winners of each tie advanced to the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

to join the 30 automatic qualifiers.

Group stage

The draw for the group stage was held on 10 December 2013. The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group. Each group was played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the

round of 16 A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

. ;Tiebreakers 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 draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the 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 (

away goals The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

do not apply) #Goal difference in all the group matches #Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches #

Penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

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 a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card) #Drawing of lots

Group A

Group B

Group C

;

Tiebreakers In games and sport, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is any method used to determine a winner or to rank participants when there is a tie - meaning two or more parties have achieved a same score or result. A tiebreaker provides the additional criterion ...

*Al-Qadsia and Al-Hidd are ranked on head-to-head record.

Group D

Group E

;

*Churchill Brothers and Home United are ranked on head-to-head record.

Group F

Group G

Group H

;

*Tampines Rovers and Pune are ranked on head-to-head record.

Knock-out stage

In the knock-out stage, the 16 teams played a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

. In the quarter-finals and semi-finals, each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis, while in the round of 16 and final, each tie was played as a single match. The

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

(for two-legged ties),

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 ...

(away goals do not apply in extra time) and

were used to decide the winner if necessary.

Bracket

Round of 16

In the round of 16, the winners of one group played the runners-up of another group in the same zone, with the group winners hosting the match. , - !colspan=3, West Asia Zone , - !colspan=3, East Asia Zone

Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 28 May 2014. Teams from different zones could be drawn into the same tie, and the "country protection" rule was applied, so teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same tie.

Semi-finals

Final

The draw to decide the host team of the final was held after the quarter-final draw.

Awards

Top scorers

References

External links

AFC Cup
the-AFC.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Afc Cup 2014 2

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

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