AFC Cup

AFC Cup

Founded	2004
Region	Asia (AFC)
Number of teams	32
Current champions	Johor Darul Ta'zim (1st title)
Most successful club(s)	Kuwait SC (3 titles)
2016 AFC Cup

The AFC Cup is an annual international association football competition between domestic clubs run by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Qualification to the competition is available to clubs from AFC-affiliated countries that fall into the AFC's 'developing nations' category as laid out in their 'Vision Asia' document. Countries which are 'emerging' nations are eligible to participate in the AFC Cup qualifying play-off, where as countries which are 'mature' nations are entered into the AFC Champions League.

The 'developing nations' are the fourteen 'next-best' countries that lie outside the top-14 countries in the AFC region which send their clubs to the more prestigious AFC Champions League. Before the reform in competition format that took place in 2009, the two competitions were not interlinked as the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League are in Europe, and AFC Champions League losers did not compete in the Cup. Following the reform in 2009, finalists of the AFC Cup meeting AFC's criteria and certain other eligible teams are allowed to compete in the qualifying round of AFC Champions League with the losers demoted to play in the AFC Cup.

Kuwait SC are the most successful club in the competition's history, having won three titles. Clubs from Kuwait have won four titles, making them the most successful nation in the competition. Ever since the inauguration of the competition in 2004, the finalists of each edition have been dominated by clubs from West Asia until 2015 when the Malaysian team Johor Darul Ta'zim from East Asia became one of the finalists. Johor Darul Ta'zim are the current champions after defeating Istiklol in the final to win the 2015 AFC Cup.

Format

AFC’s second-tier club competition will also see changes in terms of teams and format for the 2014 edition.

- A total of 32 teams participate in the group stage (16 from West Asia and Central Asia, and 16 from East Asia, South East Asia and South Asia).

- The teams will be divided into eight groups. Four of these groups will comprise West Asian teams, and four groups will make up the East Asian block.

- Two teams from each group will qualify for the Round of 16, where they will play one single knockout match.

- The quarter-finals, semi-finals will be played over two legs.

- The final will be played as a one-off match.

Allocation

Teams from only 27 AFC countries have reached the group stage of the AFC Cup. The allocation of those teams by member country is listed below. Number sign (#) represent at least one team that failed at AFC Champions League qualification; Asterisks (*) represent at least one team was eliminated in qualification; 28 AFC countries have had teams participate in qualification, though a country (Nepal) that has never reached the group stage are not shown.

Associations	Spots
	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
East Asia
Hong Kong	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2#
India	2	2	2	2	2	2#	2#	2#	2	2	2	2#
Indonesia	0	0	0	0	0	1#	2#	2#	1	2	2	2#
Laos	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Malaysia	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	0	2	2	2	2#
Maldives	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1*	2	2	2
Myanmar	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	2	2#
Philippines	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1*
Singapore	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	2	2	2#	2#
Thailand	0	0	0	1	0	1#	2#	2#	1#	0	0	0
Vietnam	0	0	0	1	0	2	2#	2	2	2	2#	0
Total	9	10	10	12	10	13	14	13	15	16	16	16
West Asia
Bangladesh	1	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*
Bahrain	0	0	1	1	2	2	1	0	0	1	2	2#
Iraq	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	3	2	2	2	2
Jordan	0	2	2	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2#
Kuwait	0	0	0	0	0	2	3	3	3	2	2	2#
Kyrgyzstan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1*	0*
Lebanon	2	2	2	2	2	3	2	2	2	2	2	2
Oman	1	0	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1#*
Palestine	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	1*
Qatar	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Saudi Arabia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1#	0	0	0
Syria	2	0	0	0	0	2	3#	3#	2	1*	2	2
Tajikistan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1*	1*
Turkmenistan	1	2	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1*
Uzbekistan	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	2	1#	0	0	0
Yemen	1	0	2	2	2	2	2	2	2*	2*	0*	0*
Total	8	8	13	12	10	18	17	19	17	16	16	16

Results and statistics

Finals

Year	Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Attendance	Number of teams participated
2004	Al-Wahda	2–3	Al-Jaish	Abbasiyyin Stadium, Damascus		18
	Al-Jaish	0–1	Al-Wahda	Abbasiyyin Stadium, Damascus
	Aggregate 3–3, Al-Jaish won on away goals
2005	Al-Faisaly	1–0	Al-Nejmeh	Amman International Stadium, Amman		18
	Al-Nejmeh	2–3	Al-Faisaly	Al Manara Stadium, Beirut
	Al-Faisaly won 4–2 on aggregate
2006	Al-Faisaly	3–0	Al-Muharraq	Amman International Stadium, Amman	7,000	20
	Al-Muharraq	4–2	Al-Faisaly	Bahrain National Stadium, Riffa	3,000
	Al-Faisaly won 5–4 on aggregate
2007	Al-Faisaly	0–1	Shabab Al-Ordon	Amman International Stadium, Amman	5,500	24
	Shabab Al-Ordon	1–1	Al-Faisaly	Amman International Stadium, Amman	7,500
	Shabab Al-Ordon won 2–1 on aggregate
2008	Al-Muharraq	5–1	Safa Beirut	Bahrain National Stadium, Riffa	6,000	20
	Safa Beirut	4–5	Al-Muharraq	Sports City Stadium, Beirut	2,000
	Al-Muharraq won 10–5 on aggregate
Year	Winners	Score	Runners Up	Venue	Attendance	Number of teams participated
2009	Al-Kuwait	2–1	Al-Karamah	Al Kuwait Sports Club Stadium, Kuwait City	17,400	32
2010	Al-Ittihad	1–1 (aet) (4–2 p)	Al-Qadsia	Jaber International Stadium, Kuwait City	58,604	31
2011	FC Nasaf	2–1	Al-Kuwait	Markaziy Stadium, Qarshi	15,753	32
2012	Al-Kuwait	4–0	Erbil	Franso Hariri Stadium, Erbil	30,000	33
2013	Al-Kuwait	2–0	Al-Qadsia	Al-Sadaqua Walsalam Stadium, Kuwait City	10,000	34
2014	Al-Qadsia	0–0 (aet) (4–2 p)	Erbil	Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium, Dubai	5,240	34
2015	Johor Darul Ta'zim	1–0	Istiqlol	Pamir Stadium, Dushanbe	18,000	40
2016						40

Performance by clubs

Club	Winners	Runners-up	Years won	Years runners-up
Al-Kuwait	3	1	2009, 2012, 2013	2011
Al-Faisaly	2	1	2005, 2006	2007
Al-Qadsia	1	2	2014	2010, 2013
Al-Muharraq	1	1	2008	2006
Al-Jaish	1	–	2004
Shabab Al-Ordon	1	–	2007
Al-Ittihad	1	–	2010
FC Nasaf	1	–	2011
Johor Darul Ta'zim	1	–	2015
Erbil	–	2		2012, 2014
Al-Wahda	–	1		2004
Al-Nejmeh	–	1		2005
Safa Beirut	–	1		2008
Al-Karamah	–	1		2009
Istiqlol	–	1		2015

Performance by nations

Nation	Winners	Runners-up
Kuwait	4	3
Jordan	3	1
Syria	2	2
Bahrain	1	1
Uzbekistan	1	–
Malaysia	1	–
Iraq	–	2
Lebanon	–	2
Tajikistan	–	1

Performance by zone

Zone	Winners	Runners-up	Champions
West	11	12	Kuwait x4; Jordan x3; Syria x2; Bahrain; Uzbekistan; Tajikistan
East	1	–	Malaysia

Top scorers

Year	Footballer	Club	Goals
2004	Indra Sahdan Daud	Home United	7
	Egmar Goncalves	Home United
2005	Mo'ayyad Salim	Al-Faisaly	9
2006	Mahmoud Shelbaieh	Al-Wahdat	8
2007	Odai Al Saify	Shabab Al-Ordun	5
	Mohammed Ghaddar	Al-Nejmeh
2008	Rico	Al-Muharraq	19
2009	Robert Akaruye	Busaiteen	8
	Mohamad Hamwi	Al-Karamah
	Jehad Al Hussain	Al-Kuwait
	Huỳnh Kesley Alves	Binh Duong
2010	Afonso Alves	Al-Rayyan	9
2011	Ivan Bošković	Nasaf Qarshi	10
2012	Amjad Radhi	Erbil	9
	Raja Rafe	Al-Shorta
2013	Issam Jemâa	Al-Kuwait	16
2014	Juan Belencoso	Kitchee	11
2015	Daniel McBreen	South China	8
	Riste Naumov	Ayeyawady United

See also

• Indian clubs in the AFC Cup
• Indonesian clubs in the AFC Cup
• Iraqi clubs in the AFC Cup
• Syrian clubs in the AFC Cup
• Thai clubs in the AFC Cup
• Hong Kong clubs in the AFC Cup
• Malaysian clubs in the AFC Cup

External links

• AFC Cup
• RSSSF - AFC Cup