The AFC Asian Cup

The Asian Cup is contested by senior men's national teams from across the AFC region. The confederation covers a vast area — from the Middle East across Central, South, East and Southeast Asia, plus Australia, which joined the AFC in 2006 after leaving the Oceania confederation. This breadth gives the tournament one of the widest ranges of football cultures and traditions in international football.

The first Asian Cup was held in 1956 in Hong Kong, with only four teams in the finals. The tournament has grown steadily since, both in the number of teams and in profile. It is now held every four years and contested by 24 nations in the finals.

The finals begin with six groups of four teams, each playing the other three in their group once. The top two teams from every group go through to the round of 16, along with the four best third-placed teams. From the round of 16 onwards the tournament is straight knockout — round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. Extra time and penalty shoot-outs settle knockout matches that are level at full time.

The 24-team format has been in place since 2019. Earlier modern editions used a 16-team format from 2004 to 2015. The 1996 and 2000 tournaments had 12 teams, and earlier fields were smaller still, with as few as four teams in the earliest tournaments.

The Asian Cup is held every four years, but it has not always sat in exactly the same place in the football calendar. Recent editions have often been played in January or February, especially when summer heat in the host country would make a mid-year tournament difficult. The matches are spread across about a month, with the final played on a single day. Hosting is decided by the AFC several years in advance.

Climate has shaped the calendar more than for most other major tournaments. Some recent editions have been moved out of the European summer to suit the heat of the host country — the 2023 edition, for example, was played in January 2024 to avoid Qatar's summer temperatures. The tournament cycle has also shifted over the years, including an early move from a four-year to a less regular cycle and back again.

Asian Cup qualifying is closely linked to AFC qualifying for the FIFA World Cup. In the current system, the early rounds form part of a joint qualifying pathway for both competitions. The strongest teams can qualify directly for the Asian Cup by progressing through World Cup qualifying, while other teams continue into Asian Cup-only qualifying rounds.

The host nation of the Asian Cup qualifies automatically. The remaining places are decided through the qualifying process, with the final qualifying round used to decide the last available spots at the finals.

There is no formal qualification path linked to the Asian Cup in the way the Nations League can feed into Euros qualifying. The closest link is through the overlapping qualifying process — teams that perform well in the joint World Cup and Asian Cup qualifying rounds often secure Asian Cup places early.

The Asian Cup winner used to qualify for the FIFA Confederations Cup, the tournament for continental champions plus the World Cup host, but that competition was discontinued in 2017 and has not been replaced.

The first Asian Cup was held in Hong Kong in 1956 with four teams in the finals — South Korea, Israel, Hong Kong and South Vietnam. South Korea won the inaugural tournament. The competition grew slowly across the following decades, with West Asian teams dominating much of the 1970s and 1980s and East Asian teams emerging strongly from the 1990s onwards.

The expansion to 24 teams in 2019 was the biggest change in the tournament's modern era, bringing more Southeast Asian and Central Asian nations into the finals. The arrival of Australia in 2007, after the country switched confederations, also raised the overall standard of competition.

The AFC Women's Asian Cup is the senior women's equivalent. It has also served as Asia's route into the Women's World Cup, including for the 2027 tournament, although the AFC has announced a separate Women's World Cup qualifying competition for future cycles. The AFC also runs Asian Cup competitions at under-23, under-20 and under-17 level for men, and at under-20 and under-17 level for women. As with most confederations, the senior men's tournament is the most-followed of the family.