Regions of the AFC
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Asian Football Confederation LogoThe Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is the governing body of football in Asia (excluding the Asian ex-Soviet republics.). It was founded in 1954. The current president is Mohammed Bin Hammam of Qatar. The AFC runs the Asian Cup, a competition for the national football teams of Asia held every four years, as well as the Asian World Cup Qualifying Tournament.
The AFC also runs three levels of annual international club competitions. The most prestigious (and oldest of the current AFC club competitions) is the AFC Champions League tournament, based on the UEFA Champions League, formed in 2002/03 with the amalgamation of the Asian Champions Cup and the Asian Cup Winners Cup. (An Asian Super Cup competition between the winners of these two major tournaments ended with the birth of the AFC Champions League.) The other competitions branched of this in 2004 when the 'Vision Asia' blueprint for development was launched. This led to the top fourteen AFC nations, the 'mature nations', sending their best teams to the AFC Champions League. The next 14 nations, the 'developing nations' qualify to send their teams to the AFC Cup. The rest of the AFC-affiliated countries, the 'emerging nations' send their teams to the AFC President's Cup. The teams which qualify from each country are usually the champions and the cup winners [1]. Currently there is no promotion and relegation between the different levels of nations.
The Asian Ladies Football Confederation is a sub-group of the AFC who manage women's football in Asia. The group was founded in April 1968 in a meeting involving Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. In 1986 the ALFC was merged into the AFC [2]. The Asian Ladies Football Confederation helped organise the AFC Women's Championship, first held in 1975, as well as the AFC's women's under-19 and the women's under-17 championships.
On January 1, 2006 Australia became the 46th member of the AFC. Regions
Regions of the AFC
The AFC is split into 4 regions[3]. Below shows how the national teams of Asia are split up by region (but are not necessarily part of their regional football federation):
Asean Football Federation
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East Asian Football Federation
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West Asian Football Federation
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Central and South Asian Football Federation
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(Although South Asian nations are combined with the Central Asian countries (indicated with a *), they have their own tournament, the South Asian Football Federation Cup and may have their own federation, South Asian Football Federation, although this is not confirmed.)
AFC Champions League
AFC Cup
AFC President's Cup
1930 - None
1934 - None
1938 - Dutch East Indies
1950 - None (India withdrew from World Cup after qualifying)
1954 - South Korea
1958 - None
1962 - None
1966 - North Korea
1970 - Israel (now UEFA)
1974 - None
1978 - Iran
1982 - Kuwait
1986 - Iraq, South Korea
1990 - South Korea, United Arab Emirates
1994 - Saudi Arabia, South Korea
1998 - Iran, Japan, Saudi
Arabia, South Korea
2002 - PR China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea
2006 - Iran, Japan,
Saudi Arabia, South
Korea
South Korea 
Saudi Arabia 
Iran
Japan 
Indonesia
North Korea
Iraq
Kuwait
China PR
United Arab Emirates Israel, who qualified in 1970 is now a member of UEFA. Australia, who joined AFC in 2006, qualified twice as a member of the OFC, in 1974 and 2006.
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Brunei Darussalam 
Cambodia 
East Timor 
Indonesia 
Laos 
Malaysia 
Maldives Republic* (invitee) 
Myanmar 
Philippines 
Singapore 
Thailand 
Vietnam 
China PR 
Chinese Taipei 
Guam 
Hong Kong 
Macau 
Mongolia 
North Korea 
Bahrain 
Iraq 
Jordan 
Kuwait 
Lebanon 
Oman 
Palestine 
Qatar 
Syria 
United Arab Emirates 
Yemen 
Afghanistan* 
Bangladesh* 
Bhutan* 
India* 
Kyrgyzstan 
Nepal* 
Pakistan* 
Sri Lanka* 
Tajikistan 
Turkmenistan 
Uzbekistan