AFC ASIAN CUP

The 'AFC Asian Cup' is a football tournament run by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The winning team becomes the champion of Asia and automatically qualifies for the FIFA Confederations Cup.
The Asian Cup has been held once every four years from 1956 onwards, the last of which held in China in 2004. However, as the Summer Olympic Games and the European Football Championship are also held in the same year as the Asian Cup (2004, 2008, 2012 etc.), the sporting calendar is somewhat crowded. The AFC have thus decided to change their tradition, and held the last tournament in 2007, and every four years henceforth from that date.
The Asian cup has been dominated by the top teams in Asia over the years, typically from East Asia or West Asia. Teams such as Korea Republic, Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have earned a spot for themselves in the final matches almost every year. Other teams which have achieved success at times include Japan, China, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, and, before the disaffiliation from AFC, Israel.

The 2007 tournament was held in the South East Asian nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. This was won by Iraq beating Saudi Arabia 1-0 in the final on 29 July 2007.

Contents

Results

Summaries

Successful national teams

Performances by host nations

Best performances by region

Awards

Most Valuable Players

Top scorers

Records and statistics

Overall top goalscorers

Most tournaments appeared

AFC Asian Cup winning managers

Score

References and footnotes

External links

Results

Summaries

Year	Host		Final				Third Place Match
			Winner	Score	Runner-up		3rd Place	Score	4th Place
1956 ''Details''	Hong Kong		''	[1]				1
1960 ''Details''	South Korea		''	1				1
1964 ''Details''	Israel		''	1				1
1968 ''Details''	Iran		''	1				1
1972 ''Details''	Thailand		''	'2–1' after extra time				'2–2' aet '(5–3)' on penalties
1976 ''Details''	Iran		''	'1–0'				'1–0'
1980 ''Details''	Kuwait		''	'3–0'				'3–0'
1984 ''Details''	Singapore		''	'2–0'				'1–1' '(5–3)' on penalties
1988 ''Details''	Qatar		''	'0–0' after extra time '(4–3)' on penalties				'0–0' after extra time '(3–0)' on penalties
1992 ''Details''	Japan		''	'1–0'				'1–1' '(4–3)' on penalties
1996 ''Details''	United Arab Emirates		''	'0–0' after extra time '(4–2)' on penalties				'1–1' '(3–2)' on penalties
2000 ''Details''	Lebanon		''	'1–0'				'1–0'
2004 ''Details''	China		''	'3–1'				'4–2'
2007 ''Details''			''	'1–0'				'0–0' after extra time '(6–5)' on penalties
2011 ''Details''

Successful national teams

Team	Champions	Runners-up	Third-place	Fourth-place
	3 (1984, 1988, 1996)	3 (1992, 2000, 2007)	-
	3 (1968 ★ , 1972, 1976 ★ )	-	4 (1980, 1988, 1996, 2004)	1 (1984)
	3 (1992 ★ , 2000, 2004)	-	-	1 (2007)
	2 (1956, 1960 ★ )	3 (1972, 1980, 1988)	3 (1964, 2000, 2007)	-
#	1 (1964 ★ )	2 (1956, 1960)	1 (1968)	-
	1 (1980 ★ )	1 (1976)	1 (1984)	1 (1996)
	1 (2007)	-	-	1 (1976)
	-	2 (1984, 2004 ★ )	2 (1976, 1992)	2 (1988, 2000)
	-	1 (1996 ★ )	-	1 (1992)
	-	1 (1964)	-	-
	-	1 (1968)	-	-
	-	-	1 (1960)	1 (1968)
	-	-	1 (1956 ★ )	1 (1964)
	-	-	1 (1972 ★ )	-
	-	-	-	2 (1956,1960)
	-	-	-	1 (2004)
	-	-	-	1 (1972)
	-	-	-	1 (1980)

:
★ = ''as hosts''
:# = ''Israel was expelled from the AFC in the early 1970s''

Performances by host nations

Year	Host nation	Finish
1956		Third place
1960		'Champions'
1964		'Champions'
1968		'Champions'
1972		Third place
1976		'Champions'
1980		'Champions'
1984		Group stage
1988		Group stage
1992		'Champions'
1996		Runner-up
2000		Group stage
2004		Runner-up
2007		Quarter-final Group stage Group stage Group stage

Best performances by region

Federation (Region)	Best performance
WAFF (West Asia)	8 titles, won by Iran (3), Saudi Arabia (3), Kuwait (1), Iraq (1)
EAFF (East Asia)	5 titles, won by Japan (3), Korea Republic (2)
AFF (Southeast Asia)	Runner-up (Myanmar, 1968)
SAFF (Central and South Asia)	Runner-up (India, 1964)

Awards

Most Valuable Players

Year	Player
1984	Jia Xiuquan
1988	Kim Joo-Sung
1992	Takuya Takagi
1996	Khodadad Azizi
2000	Hiroshi Nanami
2004	Shunsuke Nakamura
2007	Younis Mahmoud

Top scorers

Year	Player	Goals
1956	Nahum Stelmach	4
1960	Cho Yoon-Ok	4
1964	Mordechai Spiegler	2
1968	Homayoun Behzadi Giora Spiegel Moshe Romano	4
1972	Park Ee-Chon	6
1976	Nasser Nouraei Gholam Hossein Mazloomi Fatehi Kamil	3
1980	Behtash Fariba Choi Soon-Ho	7
1984	Jia Xiuquan Nasser Mohammadkhani Shahrokh Baiani	3
1988	Lee Tae-Ho	3
1992	Fahad Al-Bishi	3
1996	Ali Daei	8
2000	Lee Dong-Gook	6
2004	A'ala Hubail Ali Karimi	5
2007	Younis Mahmoud Naohiro Takahara Yasser Al-Qahtani	4

Records and statistics

Overall top goalscorers

Goals	Scorers
14	Ali Daei
10	Lee Dong-Gook
9	Naohiro Takahara
8	Jassem Al Houwaidi
7	Choi Soon-Ho, Behtash Fariba, Hossein Kalani
6	Yasser Al-Qahtani

Most tournaments appeared

The tabulated below is the players who had appeared more than four times in the history of tournament.

Player	App.	Years
Mahdi Mahdavikia	4	1996, 2000, 2004, 2007
Li Ming	4	1992, 1996, 2000, 2004
Adnan Al-Talyani	4	1984, 1988, 1992, 1996

AFC Asian Cup winning managers

Year	Head coach	Champions
1956	Lee Yoo-Hyung
1960	Wui Hye-Deok
1964	Gyula Mándi
1968	Mahmoudi Bayati
1972	Mohamed Ranjbar
1976	Heshmat Mohajerani
1980	Carlos Alberto Parreira
1984	Khalil Al-Zayani
1988	Carlos Alberto Parreira
1992	Hans Ooft
1996	Nelo Vingada
2000	Philippe Troussier
2004	Zico
2007	Jorvan Vieira

Score

★ 'Most goals scored in one match, one team:' Iran 8–0 South Yemen in 1976

★ 'Most goals scored in one match, both teams:' Japan 8–1 Uzbekistan in 2000.

References and footnotes

1. Final tournaments in round-robin format

External links

★ Official Website for 2007 AFC Asian Cup

★ RSSSF archive