AFC Cup

AFC Cup
Organising body	AFC
Founded	2004; 20 years ago
Abolished	2024; 0 years ago
Region	Asia
Number of teams	36–48 (group stage); 59 (total)
Related competitions	AFC Champions League (1st tier)
Last champions	Central Coast Mariners (1st title)
Most successful club(s)	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya; Al-Kuwait; (3 titles each)
Website	the-afc.com/cup

The AFC Cup was an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The competition was played primarily among clubs from nations that did not receive direct qualifying slots to the top-tier AFC Champions League, based on the AFC Club Competitions Ranking.

Al-Kuwait SC and Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya were the most successful clubs in the competition's history, having won three titles each. Clubs from Kuwait won four titles, making them the most successful nation in the competition. The tournament was dominated by clubs from West Asia, with the only winners from outside that region being Uzbek side FC Nasaf in 2011, Malaysian side Johor Darul Ta'zim in 2015 and Australian side Central Coast Mariners in 2024.

Central Coast Mariners were the last champions, having defeated Al-Ahed in the 2024 final. From the 2021 season, the team winning the AFC Cup was granted qualification to the following season's AFC Champions League qualifying playoffs, had they not qualified through their domestic performance.

The AFC Cup was discontinued at the end of the 2023–24 season, with the AFC Champions League 2 and AFC Challenge League being introduced as Asia's new second and third-tier competitions.

History edit

The AFC Cup began in 2004 as a second-tier competition to relate back to the AFC Champions League as 14 countries that had developing status competed in the first competition with 18 teams being nominated. Group A, B, C had West and Central Asian teams while the other two groups had east and South East Asia. The winners and three runners-up would then head to the knock-out stage where it was a random draw in who was going to play. Al-Jaish took the first AFC Cup after they defeated fellow Syrian opponents Al-Wahda on away goals.

In 2005, 18 teams competed from nine nations with the nations still being allowed to choose from one or two teams entering. After Syrian teams left the AFC Cup to try at the AFC Champions League for four years, Al-Faisaly defeated Nejmeh in the final. With it, Jordanian teams would win the next two AFC Cup seasons with Bahrain joining the league while Bangladesh was relegated to the AFC President's Cup until the tournament's abolition in 2014.

Al-Muharraq would break the trend in 2008 as they competed in the last two-legged final before it headed back into a one-leg system, a rule that was never changed till the termination of this tournament.

On 23 December 2022, it was announced that the AFC competition structure would change from the established formats from the 2024–25 season. Under the new plans, the AFC Cup was discontinued, and a new second-tier tournament called the AFC Champions League 2 was introduced.^[1] Meanwhile, a new third-tier competition was also launched under the name AFC Challenge League.^[2]^[3]

Format edit

Map of AFC countries whose teams reached the group stage of the AFC Cup

AFC member country that has been represented in the group stage

AFC member country that has not been represented in the group stage

Some changes were applied in terms of teams and format for the 2017 AFC Cup. A total of 36 teams participate in the group stage (12 each from West Asia and ASEAN, and 4 each from East Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia). The final will be played as a one-off match.

Allocation edit

Teams from 34 AFC countries had reached the group stage of the AFC Cup. The allocation of those teams by member country was listed below; asterisks represent occasions where at least one team was eliminated in qualification for the group stage. 41 AFC countries had had teams that participated in qualification (including Brunei and Timor-Leste who made their debuts in 2020), those who had not reached the group stage but had only played in qualification are not bolded.

Associations	Spots
Associations	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023–24
East
China	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Chinese Taipei	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	1	1	1*	1	1	2*
Guam	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0	0	0	0	0	0
Hong Kong	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	0	0	2	1	2	2	0
Japan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Macau	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0	1	0	1	0	0	1*
Mongolia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	1	0*	0*	0*	1	0*	1
North Korea	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	1*	0	0	0	0
South Korea	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	4	4	4	4	3	4
ASEAN
Australia	Part of OFC			0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Brunei	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0*	0	0*
Cambodia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1*	1	1	1	2	2	1*
Indonesia	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	2	1	2	2	2	0	0	2	2	2	2	2	2*
Laos	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0*	0*	1	1*	0*	1	0*
Malaysia	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	0	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	0	0	2	2	2
Myanmar	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	0	0	1*
Philippines	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1*	2	2	2	2	2	0	1	2
Singapore	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1*
Thailand	0	0	0±	1	0	2	2	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Timor-Leste	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	1	0	0
Vietnam	0	0	0	1	0	2	2	2	2	2	2	0	0	2	2	2	2	2	1	1
Total	4	4	4	6	4	8	8	7	10	10	10	10	9	11	12	12	12	11	11	12
South
Bangladesh	1	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	1	1*	1*	1	1*	1*	1*	1*
Bhutan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0*	0*	0*	0*	0*	0*	0*
India	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1*	2	2	2*
Maldives	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1*	2	2	2	2	1*	1*	0	2	1*	1*	1*
Nepal	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0	0*	0	1	0	0*	0*	0*
Pakistan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sri Lanka	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0	0*	0*	0*	0*	0
Total	5	6	6	4	4	4	4	4	3	4	4	4	5	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Central
Afghanistan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	0	0	0	0	0	0
Iran	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kyrgyzstan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0*	0*	2	1*	1*	2	2	2	1*
Tajikistan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	1*	1*	1*	1*	2	2	2	2	1*
Turkmenistan	2	2	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1*	1*	1*	2	1*	2	2	2	2*
Uzbekistan	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	0
Total	2	2	2	2	0	1	1	2	1	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	7	7	7	4
West
Bahrain	0	0	1	1	2	2	1	0	0	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1*
Iraq	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	0	0	0	0	2
Jordan	0	2	2	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	0	1
Kuwait	0	0	0	0	0	2	3	3	3	2	2	2	0	0	0	2	2	1	2	2
Lebanon	2	2	2	2	2	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Oman	1	0	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1*	2	2	2	1*	1*	0	2	1*
Palestine	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0*	1*	2	0*	0*	1	1	2	2	1*
Qatar	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Saudi Arabia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Syria	2	0	0	0	0	2	3	3	2	1*	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2*
United Arab Emirates	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Yemen	1	0	0	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	0*	0*	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	6	4	6	10	10	17	16	17	16	14	14	14	14	12	12	12	12	11	12	12
Total
Finals	18	18	20	24	20	32	31	32	32	32	32	32	32	34	36	36	39	37	37	36
Qualifying	18	18	20	24	20	32	31	32	33	33	34	41	40	50	44	43	48	43	43	49

Prize money edit

The prize money for the 2023–24 AFC Cup:^[4]

Phase	Purse (USD)	Travel subsidy (per match)
Preliminary stage	N/A	$40,000
Play-offs	N/A	$40,000
Group stage	N/A	$40,000
Knockout stage	Zonal champions: $100,000	$40,000
Final	Champions: $1.5 million Runners-up: $750,000	$40,000

Marketing edit

Sponsorship edit

Like the AFC Champions League, the AFC Cup was sponsored by a group of multinational corporations, in contrast to the single main sponsor typically found in national top-flight leagues.

The tournament's main sponsors were:^[5]

Media edit

Media Prima Berhad

Results and statistics edit

Finals edit

List of AFC Cup finals
Year	Nation	Home team	Score	Away team	Nation	Venue	Attendance
2004	Syria	Al-Wahda	2–3	Al-Jaish	Syria	Abbasiyyin Stadium, Damascus, Syria
	Syria	Al-Jaish	0–1	Al-Wahda	Syria	Abbasiyyin Stadium, Damascus, Syria
	Aggregate 3–3, Al-Jaish won on away goals
2005	Jordan	Al-Faisaly	1–0	Nejmeh	Lebanon	Amman International Stadium, Amman, Jordan
	Lebanon	Nejmeh	2–3	Al-Faisaly	Jordan	Rafic El-Hariri Stadium, Beirut, Lebanon
	Al-Faisaly won 4–2 on aggregate
2006	Jordan	Al-Faisaly	3–0	Al-Muharraq	Bahrain	Amman International Stadium, Amman, Jordan	7,000
	Bahrain	Al-Muharraq	4–2	Al-Faisaly	Jordan	Bahrain National Stadium, Riffa, Bahrain	3,000
	Al-Faisaly won 5–4 on aggregate
2007	Jordan	Al-Faisaly	0–1	Shabab Al-Ordon	Jordan	Amman International Stadium, Amman, Jordan	5,500
	Jordan	Shabab Al-Ordon	1–1	Al-Faisaly	Jordan	Amman International Stadium, Amman, Jordan	7,500
	Shabab Al-Ordon won 2–1 on aggregate
2008	Bahrain	Al-Muharraq	5–1	Safa	Lebanon	Bahrain National Stadium, Riffa, Bahrain	6,000
	Lebanon	Safa	4–5	Al-Muharraq	Bahrain	Sports City Stadium, Beirut, Lebanon	2,000
	Al-Muharraq won 10–5 on aggregate
2009	Kuwait	Al-Kuwait	2–1	Al-Karamah	Syria	Al Kuwait Sports Club Stadium, Kuwait City, Kuwait	17,400
2010	Syria	Al-Ittihad	1–1 (a.e.t.) (4–2 p)	Al-Qadsia	Kuwait	Jaber International Stadium, Kuwait City, Kuwait	58,604
2011	Uzbekistan	FC Nasaf	2–1	Al-Kuwait	Kuwait	Markaziy Stadium, Qarshi, Uzbekistan	15,753
2012	Kuwait	Al-Kuwait	4–0	Erbil	Iraq	Franso Hariri Stadium, Erbil, Iraq	30,000
2013	Kuwait	Al-Kuwait	2–0	Al-Qadsia	Kuwait	Al-Sadaqua Walsalam Stadium, Kuwait City, Kuwait	10,000
2014	Kuwait	Al-Qadsia	0–0 (a.e.t.) (4–2 p)	Erbil	Iraq	Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium, Dubai, UAE	5,240
2015	Malaysia	Johor Darul Ta'zim	1–0	Istiklol	Tajikistan	Pamir Stadium, Dushanbe, Tajikistan	18,000
2016	Iraq	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	1–0	Bengaluru	India	Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar	5,806
2017	Iraq	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	1–0	Istiklol	Tajikistan	Hisor Central Stadium, Hisor, Tajikistan	20,000
2018	Iraq	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	2–0	Altyn Asyr	Turkmenistan	Basra International Stadium, Basra, Iraq	24,665
2019	Lebanon	Al-Ahed	1–0	April 25	North Korea	Kuala Lumpur Stadium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	500
2020	Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia.^[6]
2021	Bahrain	Al-Muharraq	3–0	Nasaf	Uzbekistan	Al-Muharraq Stadium, Arad, Bahrain	9,060
2022	Oman	Al-Seeb	3–0	Kuala Lumpur City	Malaysia	Bukit Jalil National Stadium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	27,722
2023–24	Australia	Central Coast Mariners	1–0	Al-Ahed	Lebanon	Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex, Muscat, Oman	1,930

Performance by clubs edit

v t e Club	Winners	Runners-up	Years won	Years runners-up
Al-Kuwait	3	1	2009, 2012, 2013	2011
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	3	0	2016, 2017, 2018
Al-Faisaly	2	1	2005, 2006	2007
Al-Muharraq	2	1	2008, 2021	2006
Al-Qadsia	1	2	2014	2010, 2013
Nasaf Qarshi	1	1	2011	2021
Al-Ahed	1	1	2019	2023–24
Al-Jaish	1	0	2004
Shabab Al-Ordon	1	0	2007
Al-Ittihad	1	0	2010
Johor Darul Ta'zim	1	0	2015
Al-Seeb	1	0	2022
Central Coast Mariners	1	0	2023–24
Erbil	0	2		2012, 2014
Istiklol	0	2		2015, 2017
Al-Wahda	0	1		2004
Nejmeh	0	1		2005
Safa	0	1		2008
Al-Karamah	0	1		2009
Bengaluru	0	1		2016
Altyn Asyr	0	1		2018
April 25	0	1		2019
Kuala Lumpur City	0	1		2022

Performance by nations edit

Nation	Titles	Runners-up	Total
Kuwait	4	3	7
Iraq	3	2	5
Jordan	3	1	4
Syria	2	2	4
Bahrain	2	1	3
Lebanon	1	3	4
Uzbekistan	1	1	2
Malaysia	1	1	2
Oman	1	0	1
Australia	1	0	1
Tajikistan	0	2	2
India	0	1	1
Turkmenistan	0	1	1
North Korea	0	1	1

Top scorers edit

Year	Player	Club	Goals
2004	Indra Sahdan Daud	Home United	7
2004	Egmar Goncalves	Home United	7
2005	Mo'ayyad Salim	Al-Faisaly	9
2006	Mahmoud Shelbaieh	Al-Wehdat	8
2007	Odai Al Saify	Shabab Al-Ordun	5
2007	Mohammed Ghaddar	Nejmeh	5
2008	Rico	Al-Muharraq	19
2009	Robert Akaruye	Busaiteen	8
	Mohamad Hamwi	Al-Karamah
	Jehad Al Hussain	Al-Kuwait
	Huỳnh Kesley Alves	Bình Dương
2010	Afonso Alves	Al-Rayyan	9
2011	Ivan Bošković	Nasaf Qarshi	10
2012	Amjad Radhi	Erbil	9
2012	Raja Rafe	Al-Shorta	9
2013	Issam Jemâa	Al-Kuwait	16
2014	Juan Belencoso	Kitchee	11
2015	Daniel McBreen	South China	8
2015	Riste Naumov	Ayeyawady United	8
2016	Hammadi Ahmed	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	16
2017	Kim Yu-song	April 25	9
2018	An Il-bom	April 25	12
2019	Bienvenido Marañón	Ceres–Negros	10
2020	Bienvenido Marañón	Ceres–Negros	5
2021	Khusayin Norchaev	Nasaf Qarshi	7
2022	Jasur Hasanov	Sogdiana Jizzakh	5
	Paulo Josué	Kuala Lumpur City
	Pedro Paulo	Viettel
2023–24	Marco Túlio	Central Coast Mariners	8

Most Valuable Player edit

Year	Player	Club
2011	Artur Gevorkyan	Nasaf Qarshi
2012	Rogerinho	Al-Kuwait
2013	Bader Al-Mutawa	Al-Qadsia
2014	Saif Al Hashan	Al-Qadsia
2015	Safiq Rahim	Johor Darul Ta'zim
2016	Hammadi Ahmed	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya
2017	Manuchekhr Dzhalilov	Istiklol
2018	Hammadi Ahmed	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya
2019	Mehdi Khalil	Al-Ahed
2020	Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
2021	Abdulwahab Al-Malood	Al-Muharraq
2022	Eid Al-Farsi	Al-Seeb
2023–24	Mikael Doka	Central Coast Mariners

Winning coaches edit

Year	Club	Coach
2004	Al-Jaish	Costică Ștefănescu
2005	Al-Faisaly	Branko Smiljanić
2006	Al-Faisaly	Adnan Hamad
2007	Shabab Al-Ordon	Nizar Mahrous
2008	Al-Muharraq	Salman Sharida
2009	Al-Kuwait	Mohamad Abdulla
2010	Al-Ittihad	Valeriu Tița
2011	Nasaf Qarshi	Anatoliy Demyanenko
2012	Al-Kuwait	Marin Ion
2013	Al-Kuwait	Marin Ion
2014	Al-Qadsia	Antonio Puche
2015	Johor Darul Ta'zim	Mario Gomez
2016	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	Basim Qasim
2017	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	Hussam Al Sayed
2018	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	Basim Qasim
2019	Al-Ahed	Bassem Marmar
2020	Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
2021	Al-Muharraq	Isa Sadoon Al-Hamdani
2022	Al-Seeb	Rashid Jaber
2023–24	Central Coast Mariners	Mark Jackson

All-time top goalscorers edit

As of 11 March 2020^[7]

Rank	Player	Club(s)	Goals
1	Bienvenido Marañón	Ceres–Negros	35
2	Mahmoud Shelbaieh	Al-Wehdat	34
3	Aleksandar Đurić	Geylang United, Singapore Armed Forces, Tampines Rovers	32
3	Amjad Radhi	Erbil SC, Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	32
5	Bader Al-Mutawa	Qadsia SC	30
5	Rico	Al-Muharraq, Al-Riffa, Al-Hidd	30
7	Ali Ashfaq	Club Valencia, New Radiant, VB Sports Club	29

References edit

^ "History beckons for AFC Cup 2023/24 contenders as final edition of popular competition kicks off". the-AFC.com. Asian Football Confederation. 15 September 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
^ "AFC Competitions Committee recommends strategic reforms to elevate Asian club football". theAFC.com. Archived from the original on 24 December 2022. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
^ "AFC Executive Committee approves biggest prize purse in Asian club football history from 2024/25; announces AFC Women's Champions League". AFC. 14 August 2023. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
^ AFC Cup 2023–24 Competition Regulations. Asian Football Confederation. pp. 57–58. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
^ "AFC Cup League". Archived from the original on 27 February 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
^ "AFC Executive Committee announces updates to 2020 competitions calendar". AFC. 10 September 2020. Archived from the original on 5 October 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
^ "AFC Cup: Marañón leads all-time top scorers". the-afc.com. Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved 12 March 2020.

External links edit

[1] "History beckons for AFC Cup 2023/24 contenders as final edition of popular competition kicks off". the-AFC.com. Asian Football Confederation. 15 September 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2023.

[2] "AFC Competitions Committee recommends strategic reforms to elevate Asian club football". theAFC.com. Archived from the original on 24 December 2022. Retrieved 24 December 2022.

[3] "AFC Executive Committee approves biggest prize purse in Asian club football history from 2024/25; announces AFC Women's Champions League". AFC. 14 August 2023. Retrieved 14 August 2023.

[4] AFC Cup 2023–24 Competition Regulations. Asian Football Confederation. pp. 57–58. Retrieved 26 December 2023.

[ReferenceA-5] "AFC Cup League". Archived from the original on 27 February 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2013.

[6] "AFC Executive Committee announces updates to 2020 competitions calendar". AFC. 10 September 2020. Archived from the original on 5 October 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2020.

[Asian_Football_Confederation-7] "AFC Cup: Marañón leads all-time top scorers". the-afc.com. Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved 12 March 2020.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]