AFC President's Cup

AFC President's Cup

Founded	2005
Abolished	2014
Region	Asia (AFC)
Number of teams	12
Last champions	FC HTTU (1st title)
Most successful club(s)	Regar TadAZ (3 times)

The AFC President's Cup was an annual international association football competition between domestic clubs sides run by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) held between 2005 and 2014.

The competition targeted emerging football nations, and was set below the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup competitions.

Competition format[]

The AFC President's Cup trophy.

Between 8 and 12 teams participated in each edition of the competition.

From 2005 to 2007, 8 clubs were placed into two groups of 4 teams. The winners and runners up would advance to the semi-final stage. All the matches were held in a single host country.

From 2008 to 2010, the tournament was increased to 11 clubs. A qualification round was created and the 11 clubs were split into three groups of 3 or 4 clubs. Each group was played in a different country. The three group winners and the best ranked runner up qualified for the finals stage, hosted in another country.

From 2011 to 2014, the tournament was increased to 12 clubs. In the qualification round, there were three groups of 4 clubs. The group winners and runners up qualify for the final stage. These 6 clubs are broken into two groups of 3. The top teams of each group qualified directly for the final.^[1]

In November 2013 the AFC announced that the 2014 AFC President's Cup would be the last edition of the tournament.^[2] Starting from 2015, league champions of "emerging countries" are eligible to participate in the AFC Cup qualifying play-off.^[3] The qualifying round for the 2016 AFC Cup, with a similar format to the AFC President's Cup (but without a final stage), was held in August 2015, which qualified two teams to the AFC Cup play-offs.^[4]

Qualification and participating nations[]

Qualification to the competition was to clubs from AFC-affiliated countries which fall into the AFC's 'emerging nations' category as laid out in their 'Vision Asia' document. Countries which were 'mature' and 'developing' nations were entered into the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup, respectively. For an 'emerging nation' to have a team representing it in the competition, however, the country must have an acceptable football league. The team that represents a country in one season of the competition is the defending champion of the top-level leagues of participating countries.

Clubs from Nepal, Taiwan (Chinese Taipei), Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Cambodia were invited every year.

Clubs from Bangladesh, Turkmenistan, Mongolia, Philippines and North Korea were also invited in some of the years of the competition.

Some participating countries – Palestine, Myanmar, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan – applied for an upgrade to the AFC Cup, so their club teams subsequently played in that competition.

Other nations that could enter a team, but never did so are: Brunei, Timor-Leste, Guam, Laos, Macau and Afghanistan.

In March 2012 the AFC announced that the Northern Mariana Islands were approved to participate in the AFC Challenge Cup and AFC President's Cup if they fulfilled the criteria.^[5] However, they never entered a team.

Results[]

Year	Host		Final				Losing Semifinalists (No third place match)
			Winner	Score	Runner-up
2005 Details	Nepal		Regar TadAZ	3–0	Dordoi-Dynamo		Blue Star SC Three Star Club
2006 Details	Malaysia		Dordoi-Dynamo	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Vakhsh		Khemara Tatung
2007 Details	Pakistan		Dordoi-Dynamo	2–1	Mahendra Police Club		Ratnam Sports Club Regar TadAZ
2008 Details	Kyrgyzstan		Regar TadAZ	1–1 (a.e.t.) 4–3 (p)	Dordoi-Dynamo		FC Aşgabat Mahendra Police Club
2009 Details	Tajikistan		Regar TadAZ	2–0	Dordoi-Dynamo		FC Aşgabat WAPDA
2010 Details	Myanmar		Yadanarbon	1–0 (a.e.t.)	Dordoi Bishkek		HTTU Aşgabat Vakhsh Qurghonteppa
2011 Details	Taiwan		Taiwan Power Company	3–2	Phnom Penh Crown		Balkan Neftchi Kochkor-Ata (Final stage group runners-up)
2012 Details	Tajikistan		Istiklol	2–1	Markaz Shabab Al-Am'ari		Dordoi Bishkek Taiwan Power Company (Final stage group runners-up)
2013 Details	Malaysia		Nebitçi FT	1–0	KRL		Erchim Hilal Al-Quds (Final stage group runners-up)
2014 Details	Sri Lanka		HTTU Asgabat	2–1	Rimyongsu		Manang Marshyangdi Club Sheikh Russel (Final stage group runners-up)

Performance by nation[]

#	Nation	Winners	Runners-up
1	Tajikistan	4	1
2	Kyrgyzstan	2	4
3	Turkmenistan	2	0
4	Myanmar	1	0
	Chinese Taipei	1	0
6	Cambodia	0	1
	Nepal	0	1
	Pakistan	0	1
	Palestine	0	1
	North Korea	0	1

Performance by club[]

Team	Winners	Runners-Up	Years Won	Years Lost
Regar TadAZ	3	0	2005, 2008, 2009
Dordoi Bishkek	2	4	2006, 2007	2005, 2008, 2009, 2010
Yadanarbon FC	1	0	2010
Taiwan Power Company	1	0	2011
Istiklol	1	0	2012
Nebitçi	1	0	2013
Ýedigen	1	0	2014
Khatlon	0	1		2006
Nepal Police Club	0	1		2007
Phnom Penh Crown	0	1		2011
Markaz Shabab Al-Am'ari	0	1		2012
KRL	0	1		2013
Rimyongsu	0	1		2014

Awards[]

Top scorers[]

Season	Player	Goal
2005	Dudley Steinwall Hok Sochetra Khurshed Mahmudov Dzhomikhon Mukhidinov	4
2006	Chuang Yao-tsung Roman Kornilov	5
2007	Channa Ediri Bandanage	6
2008	Thi Ha Kyaw	6
2009	Soe Min Oo	6
2010	Rustam Usmonov	5
2011	Ho Ming-tsan	6
2012	Mirlan Murzaev	8
2013	Mirlan Murzaev	9
2014	Suleyman Muhadow	11

Best players[]

Season	Player	Team
2005	-	-
2006	-	-
2007	Valery Kashuba	Dordoi-Dynamo
2008	-	-
2009	Khurshed Mahmudov	Regar-TadAZ
2010	Mirlan Murzaev	Dordoi-Dynamo
2011	Chen Po-liang	Taipower
2012	Alisher Tuychiev	Istiqlol
2013	Amir Gurbani	Balkan
2014	Suleyman Muhadow	HTTU Asgabat

See also[]

• AFC President's Cup records and statistics

References[]

External links[]

• AFC President's Cup
• RSSSF - AFC President's Cup