Soccer

List of AFC Asian Cup Winners Since 1956

September 21, 2019

The Asian Cup, now known as the AFC Asian Cup is the Asian football competition that recurs every four years. It is the continent’s premier football tournament. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is the governing body of the Asian Cup and the first AFC Asian Cup was conducted in 1956, with South Korea winning the inaugural title.

Hong Kong hosted the first Asian Cup, which was contested by the 12 founding members of the AFC. Followed by the hosting team Hong Kong, various Asian countries took turns to host the AFC Asian Cup every four years. 2007 was an exception and because of it, the quadrennial cycle was moved forward one year.

Initially, 16 teams qualifying for the Asian Cup play in a four-group round-robin stage, followed by a knockout tournament between the eight teams that qualify in the previous stage. Now that the count of teams has increased to 24, the qualifying format has also changed.

Country with the Most Asian Cup Wins

The most successful team in the Asian Cup tournament is Japan, with four titles. Japan hosted and won the AFC Asian Cup in 1992. Followed by 4 wins, Iran and Saudi Arabia have each won three championship title. Australia is the reigning champion after defeating South Korea 2-1.

List of AFC Asian Cup Winners

The table below shows the AFC Asian Cup winners and the countries that have hosted the event.

AFC Asian Cup Winners List

No	Year	Host	Winner	Runner-Up	Score
1	1956	Hong Kong	South Korea	Israel	round-robin
2	1960	South Korea	South Korea	Israel	round-robin
3	1964	Israel	Israel	India	round-robin
4	1968	Iran	Iran	Burma	round-robin
5	1972	Thailand	Iran	South Korea	2–1 (a.e.t.)
6	1976	Iran	Iran	Kuwait	1–0
7	1980	Kuwait	Kuwait	South Korea	3–0
8	1984	Singapore	Saudi Arabia	China PR	2–0
9	1988	Qatar	Saudi Arabia	South Korea	0–0 (a.e.t.) (4–3 p)
10	1992	Japan	Japan	Saudi Arabia	1–0
11	1996	United Arab Emirates	Saudi Arabia	United Arab Emirates	0–0 (a.e.t.) (4–2 p)
12	2000	Lebanon	Japan	Saudi Arabia	1–0
13	2004	China	Japan	China PR	3–1
14	2007	Indonesia Malaysia Thailand Vietnam	Iraq	Saudi Arabia	1–0
15	2011	Qatar	Japan	Australia	1–0 (a.e.t.)
16	2015	Australia	Australia	South Korea	2–1 (a.e.t.)
17	2019	United Arab Emirates	TBD	TBD
18	2023	China or South Korea	TBD	TBD