AFC National League The AFC has 47 member associations which split into five regions. Several nations proposed a South West Asian Federation but that will not interfere with AFC zones.
Former members
, 1954–1974. Expelled from AFC competitions in 1974, as a result of a proposal by Kuwait which was adopted by a vote of 17 to 13 with 6 abstentions. Became full UEFA members in 1994.
The AFC runs the AFC Asian Cup and AFC Women's Asian Cup, which determine the Champions of Asia, as well as the AFC Solidarity Cup. All three competitions are held every four years. The AFC also organises the AFC Futsal Championship, AFC Beach Soccer Championship, various age-level international youth football tournaments and the Asian qualifying tournament for the FIFA World Cup, FIFA Women's World Cup and for football at the Summer Olympics. In addition to the AFC run international tournaments, each AFC regional federation organises its own tournament for national teams: EAFF East Asian Cup, SAFF Championship, AFF Championship, CAFA Championship and WAFF Championship.
Club
The top-ranked AFC competition is the AFC Champions League, which started in the 2002–03 season and gathers the top 1–4 teams of each country ; this competition only gathered teams from top country. A second, lower-ranked competition is the AFC Cup. This competition was launched by AFC in 2004. A third competition, the AFC President's Cup, which had started in 2005, was absorbed into the AFC Cup in 2015. The AFC also runs an annual Asian futsal club competition, the AFC Futsal Club Championship.
The AFC Club Competitions Ranking ranks its member associations by results in the AFC competitions. Rankings are calculated by the AFC. Listed here are the top 30 countries.
AFC
Country
Points
1
100.000
2
97.644
3
93.321
4
88.449
5
85.979
6
81.724
7
61.870
8
51.189
9
48.992
10
45.562
11
40.896
12
33.852
13
32.130
14
30.100
15
29.576
16
28.571
17
28.361
18
26.96
19
26.607
20
26.532
21
24.746
22
22.505
23
19.945
24
17.749
25
14.683
26
13.632
27
12.756
28
12.550
29
8.531
30
7.297
Clubs
Rankings are calculated by the IFFHS. Listed here are the top ten clubs.
Rank
IFFHS
Club
Points
1
62
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors
153
2
68
Kashima Antlers
149.5
3
77
Al-Duhail
142
4
95
Ulsan Hyundai
133.5
5
98
Al Ain
131
6
105
Suwon Samsung Bluewings
126
7
118
Persepolis
116.5
8
127
Buriram United
114.5
9
130
Al Sadd
113.5
10
135
Al-Ahli
112.5
Men's futsal
Here is the men's futsal rank per December 2019
AFC
FIFA
Country
Points
+/-
1
6
1603
2
15
1378
3
19
1323
4
24
1221
2
5
32
1177
6
41
1103
7
42
1079
8
44
1064
9
45
1046
10
47
1000
11
53
970
3
12
62
899
13
66
877
1
14
68
872
15
70
863
16
72
857
17
73
848
18
74
840
19
80
807
1
20
82
804
6
21
83
803
2
22
85
793
1
23
91
767
23
91
767
25
94
738
26
101
655
27
102
622
28
103
609
29
104
588
30
105
581
1
31
108
535
1
32
110
528
1
–
–
**
596
–
–
–
**
540
–
–
–
**
651
–
–
**
614
–
–
*
588
–
–
*
578
–
–
*
543
–
–
**
486
–
–
**
457
a number between brackets is the rank of the previous week.
The AFC has been accused of its political nepotism and corruption within the federation. Hakeem al-Araibi, Bahraini footballer turned political refugee in Australia, was arrested by Thai police on his honeymoon to Thailand in November 2017. He faced extradition charges from the Bahraini government on the false accusation over his involvement in the Bahraini uprising of 2011 that he instigated the attack on a police station. As Thailand did not sign the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, Thai economic interests with Bahrain, and the ruling president of the AFC, Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, is a member of Bahraini Royal family, fear that the AFC might set up as culprit for the deportation, triggered international outcry. Australia and FIFA eventually intervened and Thai officials would release Hakeem in February 2019, but this highlighted rampant political corruption in the AFC. The AFC Asian Cup is also marked with numerous instances of political interference. One of these was the case of Israel, as the team used to be a member of the AFC but following Yom Kippur War and increasing tensions against the Arab AFC members, Israel was expelled from the AFC in 1974 and had to compete in OFC until being granted UEFA membership in 1990. Meanwhile, similar cases also exist in other AFC tournaments like the one between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Following the 2016 attack on the Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran, Saudi Arabia has rejected playing with Iran and even threatens to withdraw if the AFC refuses to follow, and even extended it to international level. Tensions between the two Koreas during the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification had led North Korea to withdraw from hosting the South Korean team and refusing to display the South Korean flag and play their national anthem. As a result, North Korea's home matches were moved to Shanghai. In the 2019 AFC Asian Cup held in the United Arab Emirates, Qatari fans were barred from entering the country as part of the ongoing Qatar diplomatic crisis, despite the earlier slogan "Bringing Asia Together", although the Emirati government later announced that it would permit Qatari citizens temporary entry into the country pending approval from Emirati authorities. According to a report, Saoud al-Mohannadi, a Qatari national who is the AFC vice-president and chairman of the organizing committee for the Asian Cup, was unable to enter the UAE two days prior to the tournament's start because Emirati authorities had not yet cleared him. The director of the 2019 AFC Organizing Committee denied reports that Al Mohannadi was refused entry and declared that Al Mohannadi has arrived on Friday morning and was preparing for his meetings. The director stated that there was no evidence that shows he was unable to enter and stated that this news has "political purposes". He stated, "We try to keep sports away from politics." Since then, the Qatari team faced imminent discrimination from the host nation, and even in the semi-finals when Qatar faced up host nation, UAE supporters threw bottles and footwear into the match after Qatari players scored their second goal, the latter is considered deeply offensive in the Middle East. One of the Qatari players, Salem Al Hajri, was struck on the head with a shoe after Qatar scored its third goal. This conduct was preceded by booing the Qatari national anthem. The two countries had had a hostile relationship and had cut ties due to the ongoing diplomatic crisis. Qatar won 4–0 despite the situation, reaching their first Asian Cup final and would go on to win the tournament for the first time. Afterwards, the AFC declared that it would conduct an investigation into the proceedings, eventually punished the UAEFA over the incident, fined $150,000 US dollars for the incident and had to play their first 2022 and 2023 qualification game in closed doors. However, on 21 September, AFC had mysteriously lifted the ban just a few weeks before the match has begun. During the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, North Korea reluctantly agreed to host the South Korean team in Pyongyang, the first time North Korea hosted South Korea at home in a competitive match. Enthusiasm thus ran high due to aspiration of reconciliation between two Koreas, only to be later shattered by the North Korean Government banning supporters from entering the stadium, and aggressive performance by the Northern players to the Southern counterparts. The match ended a goalless draw, but as for the result of controversies, South Korea decided to pull out the bid for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, and accused North Korea of political meddling in sports. The AFC was accused of doing little about the case, which led to the AFC to decide the final of the 2019 AFC Cup would not be hosted in North Korea. In 2020 AFC Champions League, the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran received a letter from the AFC on 17 January 2020 announcing that teams from Iran would not be allowed to host their home matches in their country due to security concerns. The four AFC Champions League teams from Iran announced on 18 January 2020 that they would withdraw from the tournament if the ban was not reversed. The AFC announced on 23 January 2020 that any group stage matches which the Iranian teams were supposed to host on matchdays 1, 2 and 3 would be switched with the corresponding away matches to allow time to reassess the security concerns in the country. On 9 March 2020, FIFA announced in a statement that matches between Asian qualifiers for World Cup 2022, which were scheduled for March and June, are postponed to a later time. The decision has been made due to the spread of SARS-CoV-2.
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors
Kashima Antlers
Al-Duhail
Al Ain
Persepolis
Buriram United
Al-Ahli