AFC Challenge Cup

The AFC Challenge Cup was an international football competition for Asian Football Confederation (AFC) member countries that were categorised as "emerging countries" in the "Vision Asia" programme. It was created by former AFC president Mohammed Bin Hammam as the AFC's plan for a continent-wide programme to raise the standards of Asian football. The AFC Challenge Cup was created for teams to experience playing in a continental competition, with the possibility to win an AFC trophy and potentially discover new talents.

The inaugural tournament was hosted by Bangladesh in 2006 and was held biennially. An amendment to men's national team competitions in July 2006, meant that starting with the 2008 and 2010 editions of the AFC Challenge Cup, the winners automatically qualify for the AFC Asian Cup.

In the 2011 and 2015 AFC Asian Cup tournaments, two qualification spots have been allocated to the two most recent AFC Challenge Cup winners. The 2014 tournament was the last edition of this competition, due to the expansion of the Asian Cup to the 24-nations format from the 16-nations one after the 2015 edition. In April 2016, due to several associations requesting a new competition to replace the Challenge Cup as they were having problems arranging friendly matches, the AFC created the AFC Solidarity Cup.

Selection of teams

The AFC initially divided their 46 member nations into three groups in 2006. Although the tournament was meant for the countries of emerging associations class, some countries from the developing associations class have participated in the qualification and the finals of the tournament such as India, Maldives, Myanmar, North Korea, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. As a result, only one team from the emerging class ever won the tournament, Palestine in 2014. In late March 2012, the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association, although only an associate member of the AFC, was approved to enter their national team in the competition. In November 2012, the AFC announced North Korea's exclusion from future AFC Challenge Cups.

The top 15 are classed as developed associations:

• Australia
• Bahrain
• China
• Indonesia
• Iran
• Iraq
• Japan
• Kuwait
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• South Korea
• Thailand
• United Arab Emirates
• Uzbekistan
• Vietnam

The next 14 are classed as developing associations:

• India
• Bangladesh
• Hong Kong
• Jordan
• Lebanon
• Malaysia
• Maldives
• Myanmar
• North Korea
• Oman
• Singapore
• Syria
• Turkmenistan
• Yemen

File:AFC Challenge Cup Eligibility Map.svg

  Eligible in the AFC Challenge Cup

  Former participants

The last 17 are classed as emerging associations, which need time to develop their football. They are eligible in the AFC Challenge Cup. These are the teams which participate:

• Afghanistan
• Bhutan
• Brunei
• Cambodia
• Chinese Taipei
• Guam
• Kyrgyzstan
• Laos
• Macau
• Mongolia
• Nepal
• Pakistan
• Palestine
• Philippines
• Sri Lanka
• Tajikistan
• Timor-Leste

Results

Year	Host	Final			Losing semi-finalists			Number of teams
		Winner	Score	Runner-up
2006 Details	Template:Flagicon Bangladesh	File:Flag of Tajikistan.svg Tajikistan	4–0	File:Flag of Sri Lanka.svg Sri Lanka	Kyrgyzstan and Nepal			16
Year	Host	Final			Third place match			Number of teams
		Winner	Score	Runner-up	Third place	Score	Fourth place
2008 Details	Template:Flagicon India	File:Flag of India.svg India	4–1	File:Flag of Tajikistan.svg Tajikistan	File:Flag of North Korea.svg North Korea	4–0	File:Flag of Myanmar (1974–2010).svg Myanmar	8
2010 Details	Template:Flagicon Sri Lanka	File:Flag of North Korea.svg North Korea	1–1 (a.e.t.) (5–4 pens.)	File:Flag of Turkmenistan.svg Turkmenistan	File:Flag of Tajikistan.svg Tajikistan	1–0	File:Flag of Myanmar (1974–2010).svg Myanmar	8
2012 Details	Template:Flagicon Nepal	File:Flag of North Korea.svg North Korea	2–1	File:Flag of Turkmenistan.svg Turkmenistan	File:Flag of the Philippines.svg Philippines	4–3	File:Flag of Palestine.svg Palestine	8
2014 Details	Template:Flagicon Maldives	File:Flag of Palestine.svg Palestine	1–0	File:Flag of the Philippines.svg Philippines	File:Flag of Maldives.svg Maldives	1–1 (a.e.t.) (8–7 pens.)	File:Flag of Afghanistan (2013–2021).svg Afghanistan	8

Most successful teams

Team	Champion	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place
North Korea	2 (2010, 2012)		1 (2008)
Tajikistan	1 (2006)	1 (2008)	1 (2010)
Palestine	1 (2014)			1 (2012)
India	1 (2008)
Turkmenistan		2 (2010, 2012)
Philippines		1 (2014)	1 (2012)
Sri Lanka		1 (2006)
Kyrgyzstan			1 (2006^)
Nepal			1 (2006^)
Maldives			1 (2014)
Myanmar				2 (2008, 2010)
Afghanistan				1 (2014)

Participating nations

File:AFC Challenge Cup Appearances.svg

The participating countries of the AFC Challenge Cup and their number of appearances in the tournament.

  4 appearances

  3 appearances

  2 appearances

  1 appearance

  Never qualified

  Ineligible

  Not an associate member of AFC

Legend

For each tournament, the number of teams in each of the finals tournament are shown.

Teams	2006 (16)	2008 (8)	2010 (8)	2012 (8)	2014 (8)	Years
Afghanistan	GS	GS	×	•	4th	3
Bangladesh	QF	•	GS	•	•	2
Bhutan	GS	•	•	•	•	1
Brunei	GS	•	•	×	×	1
Cambodia	GS	•	•	•	•	1
Chinese Taipei	QF	•	•	•	•	1
Guam	GS	•	•	•	•	1
India	•	1st	•	GS	•	2
Template:Flagicon India U20	QF	•	•	•	•	1
Template:Flagicon India U23	•	•	GS	•	•	1
Kyrgyzstan	SF	•	GS	•	GS	3
Laos	•	×	•	•	GS	1
Macau	GS	•	•	•	•	1
Maldives	‡	‡	•	GS	3rd	2
Mongolia	•	×	•	•	•	0
Myanmar	‡	4th	4th	•	GS	3
Nepal	SF	GS	•	GS	•	3
North Korea	‡	3rd	1st	1st	‡	3
Northern Mariana Islands	‡	‡	‡	‡	•	0
Pakistan	GS	•	•	•	•	1
Palestine	QF	×	•	4th	1st	3
Philippines	GS	•	•	3rd	2nd	3
Sri Lanka	2nd	GS	GS	•	•	3
Tajikistan	1st	2nd	3rd	GS	•	4
Timor-Leste	×	×	×	×	×	0
Turkmenistan	‡	GS	2nd	2nd	GS	4

Champions by region

Federations (Region)	Champions	Titles	Years
EAFF (East Asia)	North Korea	2	2010, 2012
WAFF (West Asia)	Palestine	1	2014
CAFA (Central Asia)	Tajikistan	1	2006
SAFF (South Asia)	India	1	2008
AFF (South East Asia)

Summary

AFC Challenge Cup (2006–2014)

Rank	Team	Part	M	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	North Korea	3	15	12	2	1	35	4	+31	38
2	Tajikistan	4	19	11	2	6	36	16	+20	35
3	Turkmenistan	4	16	8	4	4	27	14	+13	28
4	Palestine	3	14	8	3	3	29	8	+21	27
5	Philippines	3	13	6	3	4	18	14	+4	21
6	India	4	15	5	3	7	13	21	–8	18
7	Kyrgyzstan	3	11	5	0	6	7	12	–5	15
8	Myanmar	3	13	5	0	8	15	22	–7	15
9	Sri Lanka	3	12	4	2	6	12	22	–10	14
10	Nepal	3	11	3	2	6	11	14	–3	11
11	Bangladesh	2	7	3	1	3	10	13	–3	10
12	Maldives	2	8	2	2	4	9	12	–3	8
13	Afghanistan	3	11	1	5	5	7	19	–12	8
14	Chinese Taipei	1	4	1	2	1	3	5	–2	5
15	Brunei	1	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4
16	Pakistan	1	3	1	1	1	3	4	–1	4
17	Cambodia	1	3	1	0	2	4	6	–2	3
18	Bhutan	1	3	0	1	2	0	3	–3	1
19	Macau	1	3	0	1	2	2	8	–6	1
20	Laos	1	3	0	1	2	1	7	–6	1
21	Guam	1	3	0	0	3	0	17	–17	0

AFC Challenge Cup (Qualification) (2008– 2014)

Rank	Team	Part	M	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Philippines	4	13	7	3	3	23	11	+12	24
2	Afghanistan	3	10	6	2	2	10	4	+6	20
3	Turkmenistan	3	8	6	1	1	28	3	+25	19
4	Tajikistan	3	9	6	1	2	15	2	+13	19
5	Sri Lanka	4	12	5	3	4	28	18	+10	18
6	Myanmar	3	9	5	2	2	16	8	+8	17
7	Pakistan	4	12	5	2	5	26	21	+5	17
8	Kyrgyzstan	4	10	5	2	3	12	10	+2	17
9	Palestine	3	8	4	4	0	16	2	+14	16
10	Nepal	4	10	4	4	2	12	6	+6	16
11	Bangladesh	4	11	5	1	5	14	10	+4	16
12	Maldives	2	6	4	1	1	15	6	+9	13
13	India	2	6	4	1	1	13	4	+7	13
14	Chinese Taipei	4	14	3	4	7	22	24	–2	13
15	North Korea	1	3	3	0	0	7	0	+7	9
16	Cambodia	4	12	3	0	9	13	35	–22	9
17	Mongolia	3	7	2	1	4	6	11	–5	7
18	Laos	2	5	1	3	1	9	10	–1	6
19	Macau	4	12	2	0	10	11	29	–18	6
20	Guam	2	6	1	0	5	7	27	–20	3
21	Brunei	2	6	0	1	5	2	22	–20	1
22	Bhutan	3	8	0	1	7	1	24	–23	1
23	Northern Mariana Islands	1	3	0	0	3	0	19	–19	0

Awards

Most valuable player

Year	Player
2006	Template:Flagicon Ibrahim Rabimov
2008	Template:Flagicon Bhaichung Bhutia
2010	Template:Flagicon Ryang Yong-Gi
2012	Template:Flagicon Pak Nam-Chol
2014	Template:Flagicon Murad Ismail

Top scorer

Year	Player	Goals
2006	Template:Flagicon Fahed Attal	8
2008	Template:Flagicon Pak Song-Chol	6
2010	Template:Flagicon Ryang Yong-Gi	4
2012	Template:Flagicon Phil Younghusband	6
2014	Template:Flagicon Ashraf Nu'man	4

Winning coach

Year	Country	Coach
2006	Tajikistan	Template:Flagicon Sharif Nazarov
2008	India	Template:Flagicon Bob Houghton
2010	North Korea	Template:Flagicon Jo Tong-sop
2012	North Korea	Template:Flagicon Yun Jong-su
2014	Palestine	Template:Flagicon Jamal Mahmoud