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'':

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The next 14 are classed as ''developing associations'':

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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:

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Results

Most successful teams

Participating nations

;Legend

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

Champions by region

Summary

AFC Challenge Cup (2006–2014)

AFC Challenge Cup (Qualification) (2008– 2014)

Awards

Most valuable player

Top scorer

Winning coach

References

{{AFC football

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Defunct international association football competitions in Asia
Recurring sporting events established in 2006
Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2014