Asian Football Confederation

Asian Football Confederation:

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is the governing body of association football in Asia. It has 46 member countries, mostly located on the Asian continent. Due to the disputed boundary of Europe and Asia transcontinental nations such as Turkey, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Cyprus, and Russia, are instead in the UEFA, as is Israel which lies entirely in Asia. On the other hand, Australia, formerly in the OFC, has been in the AFC since 2006, in the same way as the oceanian nations of Guam and Northern Mariana Islands, which are also members of AFC.

The AFC was founded on 8 May 1954 in Manila, Philippines, and is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The main headquarters is located in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The current president is Mohammed Bin Hammam of Qatar.

The AFC was formed officially on 8 May 1954 in Manila, Philippines, on the sidelines of the second Asian Games. The 12 founder members were Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea Republic, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam.

AFC competitions:

The AFC runs the Asian Cup, a competition for the national football teams of Asia held every four years, as well as the Asian World Cup Qualifying Tournament and the AFC Challenge Cup. It also runs the Asian Olympics Qualifying Tournament. The AFC also runs three levels of annual international club competitions. The most prestigious (and oldest of the current AFC club competitions) is the AFC Champions League tournament, based on the UEFA Champions League, formed in 2002/03 with the amalgamation of the Asian Champions Cup and the Asian Cup Winners Cup. (An Asian Super Cup competition between the winners of these two major tournaments ended with the birth of the AFC Champions League.) The other competitions branched off this in 2004 when the 'Vision Asia' blueprint for development was launched. This led to the top fourteen AFC nations, the 'mature nations', sending their best teams to the AFC Champions League. The next 14 nations, the 'developing nations' qualify to send their teams to the AFC Cup.

The rest of the AFC-affiliated countries, the 'emerging nations' send their teams to the AFC President's Cup. The teams which qualify from each country are usually the champions and the cup winners. Currently there is no promotion and relegation between the different levels of nations.

The AFC plans to revamp 22 leagues in Asia, 10 of them by 2009-2012. This is due to the poor performance of Asian teams in the 2006 World Cup. The reforms include increasing transparency, increasing competitiveness, improving training facilities, and forcing the leagues to have a system of relegation and promotion.

The 10 leagues marked for reform are Australia, Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore, India, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. The proposal would mark a radical change in Australia, where professional leagues in all sports are organised on a model of franchised teams and closed league membership.

There are 12 AFC Nations that play in the UAFA organised Arab Nations Cup, namely: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

AFC tournaments:

International

*Asian Cup · Challenge Cup · U-19 Championship · U-16 Championship · Futsal Championship

Club level

*Champions League · Cup · President's Cup · Futsal Club Championship

Defunct: Cup Winners Cup · Super Cup

Women's football

*Asian Cup · U-19 Championship · U-16 Championship

Regional tournaments

*ASEAN: ASEAN Football Championship (formerly known as the Tiger Cup prior to 2007).

*Central Asia: Officially only 4 countries in this region, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan (Kazakhstan left for UEFA). No official tournament held between countries in this region.

*East Asia: East Asian Cup.

*South Asia: South Asian Football Federation Cup.

*West Asia: West Asian Football Federation Championship (Although not all West Asian Countries enter), Gulf Cup of Nations.