The biggest football tournament run by the Asian Football Confederation, the AFC Asian Cup might be over just couple months ago. The second oldest continental football championship in the world after Copa América was at their 16th edition and it was held in Australia from 9th to 31th January 2015. The tournament was won by Australia after defeating South Korea 2–1 in extra time in the final, thereby earning the right to participate in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, which is to be hosted by Russia. For your quick information, it also Australia’s first Asian title since their move from the Oceania Football Confederation back in 2006. It was also the first time a team has become champions of two confederations, following Australia’s four OFC Nations Cup titles back in 1980, 1996, 2000 and 2004. While AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 was chosen on 5th January 2011, after being the sole bidder for the right to host the 2015 tournament. The matches were played in five different stadiums across five cities, such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Newcastle. It was the first time that Australia had hosted the tournament, and it was also the first time the Asian Cup had been held outside the continent of Asia. As hosts, Australia automatically qualified for the final tournament, while the remaining 15 finalists (with the exception of Japan and South Korea who qualified via their top three position in the previous Asian Cup) were decided through a qualification process, featuring 44 teams, from February 2013 to March 2014. Watch the entire clip of after-movie drama of the record breaking AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 above.
The Asian Cup was held once every four years from the 1956 edition in Hong Kong until the 2004 tournament in Mainland China. However, since the Summer Olympic Games and the European Football Championship were also scheduled in the same year as the Asian Cup, the AFC decided to move their championship to a less crowded cycle. After 2004, the tournament was next held in 2007 when it was co-hosted by four nations such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Thereafter, it has been held every four years. The Asian Cup has generally been dominated by a small number of top teams. Initially successful teams included South Korea and Iran. Since 1984, Japan and Saudi Arabia have been the most successful teams, winning 7 of the previous 8 finals. Other teams which have achieved success at times include Iraq, Israel and Kuwait. Australia joined the Asian confederation in 2007 and hosted the Asian Cup finals in 2015. The 2019 tournament will be expanded from 16 teams to 24 teams, with the qualifying process doubling as part of the qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The tournament will be hosted by the United Arab Emirates. Unlike other confederation tournaments, the Asian Cup has often been rescheduled to another time of year to better suit the climate of the host nation.