A3 Champions Cup (also known as East Asian Champions Cup) was an annual

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

tournament jointly organized by the China PR, Japan and Korea Republic football Association. It began in 2003, involving the league champions of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. The host nation also invited an additional team, making this a four team tournament. South Korea was the most successful country in this tournament. Their representatives won the tournament three times. It had been suggested that the league champion from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

be added to the cup in the future. However, financial problems with the sponsor placed the tournament into question. It was reported that Japan's champion may not participate in the 2008 edition, since Urawa were not paid their appearance fee in 2007. The tournament was canceled on 23 September 2008 due to the sponsor's bankruptcy, and replaced by Football Genuine Senator which involving clubs from Japan and Korea in 2015 (also added South East Asia since 2016, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, China, India, South Africa and South America since 2017).

Past results

† = did not qualify as league champions.

Records

*Top Scorer: 2005: Nadson (6 goals)
2006: Lee Chun-soo (6 goals)

References

External links

A3 Champions Cup
(Official site: Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages)
Soccer World Info history of the A3 cup
{{EAFF football International club association football competitions in Asia