Asian Cup - Definition and Overview

The AFC Asian Cup, formerly known as the Asian Nations Cup is the main national football competition of the AFC nations. It has been held every four years since 1956. A qualifying tournament is held to determine the participating nations, currently this involves two rounds of league round-robin format. The host country and defending champions qualify automatically. While only four countries were admitted to the first Asian Cup in 1956, the field of participants now comprises sixteen nations qualified from an initial 43.

Results

Year	Host		Final				Third Place Match
			Winner	Score	Runner-up		3rd Place	Score	4th Place
1956 Details	Hong Kong		Rep. of Korea		Israel		Hong Kong		Rep. of Vietnam
1960 Details	Rep. of Korea		Rep. of Korea		Israel		Taiwan		Rep. of Vietnam
1964 Details	Israel		Israel		India		Rep. of Korea		Hong Kong
1968 Details	Iran		Iran		Burma		Israel		Taiwan
1972 Details	Thailand		Iran	2 - 1	Rep. of Korea		Thailand	2 - 2	Cambodia
							5 - 3 on penalties
1976 Details	Iran		Iran	1 - 0	Kuwait		P.R. China	1 - 0	Iraq
1980 Details	Lebanon		Kuwait	3 - 0	Rep. of Korea		Iran	3 - 0	D.P.R.Korea
1984 Details	Singapore		Saudi Arabia	2 - 0	P.R. China		Kuwait	1 - 1	Iran
							3 - 2 on penalties
1988 Details	Qatar		Saudi Arabia	0 - 0	Rep. of Korea		Iran	0 - 0	P.R. China
			4 - 3 on penalties				3 - 0 on penalties
1992 Details	Japan		Japan	1 - 0	Saudi Arabia		P.R. China	1 - 1	U.A.E.
							3 - 2 on penalties
1996 Details	U.A.E.		Saudi Arabia	0 - 0	U.A.E.		Iran	1 - 1	Kuwait
			4 - 2 on penalties				3 - 2 on penalties
2000 Details	Lebanon		Japan	1 - 0	Saudi Arabia		Rep. of Korea	1 - 0	P.R. China
2004 Details	P.R. China		Japan	3 - 1	P.R. China		Iran	4 - 2	Bahrain
2007 Details	Indonesia/Malaysia Thailand/Vietnam

Total Wins

• 3 - Iran, Saudi Arabia, Japan
• 2 - Rep. of Korea
• 1 - Kuwait, Israel