Sport | Football
Asian Cup growing in stature as more nations join the fray
The Asian Football Confederation was the brainchild of Dato Tunko Abdul Rahman, the late Prime Minister of Malaysia and was established in Manila, the Philippines, in 1954.
- By Yasir Abbasher, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:14 June 30, 2007
Abu Dhabi: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) was the brainchild of Dato Tunko Abdul Rahman, the late Prime Minister of Malaysia and was established in Manila, the Philippines, in 1954.
The 12 founding members thought of means of spreading and improving the game of football in Asia and organising the Asian Cup was the biggest step they saw to achieve their goals.
In 1956 the first edition of the Asian Cup was held in Hong Kong with the participation of only seven teams and the finals were held in a round robin format with Korea Republic winning the first ever title.
And as the membership of the AFC increased from 12 to 48 teams through the years, the Asian Cup competition has developed to include more teams in the preliminary qualifiers.
Kicked out
The final stage teams were increased in 1996 from eight to 12 and then to 16 in the 13th version of the tournament in China in 2004.
Korea Republic dominated the first editions of the Asian Cup having won the first two titles then Iran dominated the competition from 1968 to 1976 with Israel winning the title when they hosted the 3rd Asian Cup in 1964 before being kicked out of the AFC and joining Uefa before the 5th version of the tournament in Thailand in 1972 which marked the first participation of the Arab teams in the qualifiers.
In the 14th version of the Asian Cup, Australia will be the new edition to the teams in the finals which will be held in four countries, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. Thailand will host the opening match on July 7 while Indonesia will stage the final match on July 29.
Share this article
Popular in Sport
-
Golf
Realistic hope
Briton, on verge of turning 29, is among the fancied four for title
Sport Editor's choice
-
Westwood in control
Englishman grabs two-shot lead as Harrington pays price for double-bogey on Earth course
-
Stojakovic leads Hornets to victory
New Orleans, under new coach Bower, hand Phoenix their third loss of the season
-
Harrington: Hit and miss
Harrington drops lead after a double bogey on the 18th, shares second spot with six others in Dubai World Championship
