AFC Asian Cup - Introduction & History

The AFC Asian Cup is a football competition run by the Asian Football Confederation. The winning national team is proclaimed champions of Asia and qualifies for the FIFA Confederations Cup. The next edition of the tournament will be held in South East Asian nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand.

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 will be holding the next 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. Teams such as South Korea, Iran and Japan have earned a spot for themselves in the final matches almost every year. New comers to the federation, Australia are likely to be a challenging opponent for these teams and are likely to beat the less skilled teams at the early stages with their physical style of play. This means that the weaker teams will have to work harder to get close to the final stages. However in the past decade or so, some of these teams have shown Asia what they are really capable of, teams such as China, Saudi Arabia, and even Bahrain.