Beginning

A pan-Asian competition was first proposed after the end of World War II, but it was not implemented until the 1950s. Two years after the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) came into being in 1954, the first ever AFC Asian Cup was staged in Hong Kong with seven of the twelve founding members taking part, making the tournament the second oldest continental competition in the world. The qualifying process involved the hosts plus the winners of the various zones (Central, Eastern and Western). It was only a four-team tournament, a format that also existed for 1960 and 1964. Each sub-confederation already hosts their own biennial championship, each with varying degrees of interest.

South Korea demonstrated its superiority in the early years of the competition as the country won the championship in both 1956 and 1960; this remains as South Korea's best achievements in the tournament.^[4]

West Asian domination (1964–1988)

After Hong Kong and South Korea hosted the two first editions, Israel was chosen as host of the 1964 AFC Asian Cup. Using the same format of the two previous editions, this tournament only had four teams and played in one single group to determine the champions. Israel eventually topped the tournament ahead of India with three wins.^[5] The format was updated to five teams in 1968 before it was expanded to six teams in 1972 and 1976.

The tournament became the preserve of Iran who won three consecutive tournaments in 1968, 1972 and 1976, with Iran hosting the former and the latter. Iran remains as the only national team in Asia to have won three consecutive Asian Cups. The 1972 final was notable as it was the first Asian Cup to use the group stage-knockout phase format, which was followed in the subsequent tournaments with some alternation.^[6] Israel was expelled from the AFC in 1972 due to the Arab–Israeli conflict.^[7]

From 1980 to 1988, the number of teams taking part expanded to ten, but West Asian countries continued their domination in the 1980s with Kuwait becoming the first Arab country to win the championship in 1980 held at home soil, beating South Korea 3–0 in the final.^[8] Saudi Arabia, after an initial poor start, began to emerge as the country qualified, then won two consecutive Asian trophies in 1984 and 1988, overcoming both China and South Korea. Both tournaments were Saudi Arabia's debuts in any major competitions.^[9]

Japan's rise and modernization of Asian Cup (1992–2011)

Until the 1990s, Japan was mostly a small name in Asian football, and the country only qualified for the 1988 edition, the first time Japan took part in a continental football tournament. However, as Japan started to make a concrete move inroad to professional football, the country's fortunes increased. Japan hosted the 1992 AFC Asian Cup, which was reduced to eight teams and two groups, where it emerged victorious after beating Saudi Arabia, then-defending champions, 1–0, to win the country's first major international honour.^[10][11]

The 1996 AFC Asian Cup saw the tournament expand to twelve teams in its process of professionalization. Held by the United Arab Emirates, the hosts breached into the final for the first time ever but were unable to win the trophy after losing to Saudi Arabia, who made it into the country's fourth consecutive Asian finals, on penalties. It was Saudi Arabia's third Asian title.^[10][12][13]

The 2000 AFC Asian Cup saw Lebanon take part in its first Asian tournament, and it was Saudi Arabia who again reached the final, but this time, Japan triumphed over Saudi Arabia 1–0 in a final filled with a majority of Saudi supporters.^[14] Japan would go on to retain their Asian trophy four years later, albeit in a more struggling style and a very heated, politically charged final toward hosts China.^[15] The 2004 edition was notable as it expanded to 16 teams, and marked Saudi Arabia's absence from an Asian Cup final for the first time.

The 2007 AFC Asian Cup was the debut of Australia, which had abandoned the Oceania Football Confederation in 2006 (coincidentally the first team to qualify for the tournament), as well as being the first football competition in the world to be hosted by more than two nations, with four countries in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia) hosting.^[16][17] In this tournament, Iraq was crowned as Asian champions despite the ravaging American invasion, overpowering the likes of Australia, South Korea and Saudi Arabia in the process.^[18]

Australia (which joined the AFC in 2006), after its poor debut in 2007, rebounded to reach the final in 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar, but lost to Japan after extra-time; the win for Japan meant it became the most decorated team in Asian football with four titles.^[19] Still, the tournament was notable as the first Asian Cup to use the jersey numbers' order from 1 to 23, previously not practised in prior competitions.

Expansion of the Asian Cup (2015–present)

Following Australia's successes in the 2011 Asian Cup, the AFC approved the country to host the 2015 AFC Asian Cup. At the tournament, Australia managed to clamp down every opponent with only one loss, against eventual finalist South Korea, whom Australia would get a 2–1 final revenge after extra-time; the win officially sealed Southeast Asia's first Asian title as Australia joined the AFF in 2013.^[20] AFC Asian Cup begins on 12th January 2024 and ends on 10th February 2024.^[21]

At the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, the video assistant referees were used in the tournament for the first time,^[22] as well as an expansion to 24 teams.^[23] In addition, a fourth substitution was allowed during extra time.^[24] The tournament, hosted by the United Arab Emirates for the second time, witnessed the rise of Qatar, who conquered its first ever Asian title after beating Japan in the final 3–1.^[25] The tournament was marred by the Qatar diplomatic crisis, due to the UAE's entry ban on Qatari supporters, as well as shoe-throwing in the two teams' semi-final clash.^[26]

Final tournament

Since 1972, the final tournament is played in two stages: the group stage and the knockout stage. Since 2019, each team plays three games in a group of four, with the winners and runners-up from each group advancing to the knockout stage along with the four best third-placed teams. In the knockout stage the sixteen teams compete in a single-elimination tournament, beginning with the round of 16 and ending with the final match of the tournament.

#	Year	Host	Teams	Matches	Round 1	Final stages
1	1956	Hong Kong	4	6	1 group: 6–10 matches (depending on the number of teams)
2	1960	South Korea
3	1964	Israel
4	1968	Iran	5	10
5	1972	Thailand	6	13	3 group allocation matches followed by 2 groups of 3 teams (6 matches): 9 matches	knockout of 4 teams (round 1 group winners and runners-up): 4 matches
6	1976	Iran		10	2 group of 3 teams: 6 matches
7	1980	Kuwait	10	24	2 group of 5 teams: 20 matches
8	1984	Singapore
9	1988	Qatar
10	1992	Japan	8	16	2 group of 4 teams: 12 matches
11	1996	United Arab Emirates	12	26	3 groups of 4 teams: 18 matches	knockout of 8 teams (round 1 group winners and runners-up, plus 2 best 3rd-placed teams): 8 matches
12	2000	Lebanon
13	2004	China	16	32	4 groups of 4 teams: 24 matches	knockout of 8 teams (round 1 group winners and runners-up): 8 matches
14	2007	Indonesia  Malaysia  Thailand  Vietnam
15	2011	Qatar
16	2015	Australia
17	2019	United Arab Emirates	24	51	6 groups of 4 teams: 36 matches	knockout of 16 teams (round 1 group winners and runners-up, plus 4 best 3rd-placed teams): 15 matches (no third-place match)
18	2023	Qatar
19	2027	Saudi Arabia
20	2031	South Korea
21	2035		To be determined

Timeline

AFC Asian Cup leaders

Political interference

The AFC Asian Cup is 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 the Yom Kippur War and increasing tensions against the Arab AFC members, Israel was expelled from the AFC in 1974 and had to compete in the OFC, until being granted UEFA membership in 1990.^[36] 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 had refused to play against Iran and even threatened to withdraw, afterwards blowing over onto international level.^[37] Tensions between the two Koreas during qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup 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.^[38]

Low attendances

Low crowds have also been another problem for the AFC Asian Cup. At the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, there had been concerns over low record of crowds due to little football interests and high costs of traveling between Asian nations leading to then-Australia coach Holger Osieck claiming that the Qatar Armed Forces were used to fill up the stadiums simply for aesthetics, while Australia international Brett Holman commented, "Worldwide it's not recognised as a good tournament".^[35]