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 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 organised 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 the men's under-23 national teams of Asia. Each edition of the tournament that is in an even year is linked to the qualification process for the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

, whereby the top three teams in the tournament qualify directly and the fourth-placed team may enter an intercontinental play-off match depending on the slot allocations. The first edition was initially set to be held in 2013 and its

qualification Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

matches in 2012, but the finals tournament was postponed to be played in January 2014 due to the 2013 EAFF East Asian Cup. In 2016 the tournament was also renamed from the "AFC U-22 Championship" to the "AFC U-23 Championship". The tournament was rebranded as the "AFC U-23 Asian Cup" in 2021. In July 2023, the AFC announced that each non-Olympic edition of the tournament would be hosted by the same association hosting the next

AFC Asian Cup The AFC Asian Cup is the primary association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), determining the continental champion of Asia. It is the second-oldest c ...

. However, on 24 May 2024, AFC announced that the tournament will be held quadrennially from 2028, effectively discontinued the non-Olympic qualifiers’ editions from 2030.

Format

The overview of the competition format in the 2016 tournament was as follows: * 16 teams competed in the final tournament, including the hosts which were automatically qualified. * Teams were seeded by the result of 2013 AFC U-22 Championship. * The tournament was held in 18 days. * 3 or 4 stadiums in at most 2 cities were needed to host the tournament. In addition, players would be ineligible for participating in the AFC U-17 Asian Cup if they participated in a higher age group competition (this tournament or the AFC U-20 Asian Cup), though in reality it is rarely enforced.

Results

Teams reaching the top four

* Results from host teams shown in bold

Overall team records

In this ranking 3 points are awarded for a win, 1 for a draw, and 0 for a loss. 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. Teams are ranked by total points, then by goal difference, then by goals scored.

Champions by regions

Comprehensive team results by tournament

;Legend * – Champions * – Runners-up * – Third place * – Fourth place *QF – Quarter-finals *GS – Group stage *Q – Qualified * — Hosts * • – Did not qualify * × – Did not enter * × – Withdrew before qualification / Banned

Results at the Olympics (2016–present)

Awards

Winning coaches

Results by federation

— Hosts are from this federation

References

External links

* {{International football Asian Football Confederation competitions for national teams Under-23 association football competitions