By Paul Nicholson
June 1 – The AFC has confirmed it is switching the remaining matches of its Group A, Asian Qualifiers, from China to the United Arab Emirates following outbreaks of coronavirus in the Syrian and Maldives delegations.
January 28 – The premium women’s national team competition in Asia, the AFC Women’s Asian Cup to be played in India in 2022 will be held January 20 to February 6.
May 16 – South Korea have pulled out of their bid to host the 2023 Asian Cup, leaving China as the last remaining bidder for the AFC’s 24-team blue riband event.
February 5 – The Asian Cup may only have just finished, but there is little respite for Asia’s players as the qualifiers for this year’s AFC Asian Champions League, the continent’s premier club competition, get underway today.
November 13 – Kashima Antlers were crowned AFC Champions League winners for the first time after a goalless stalemate with Iran’s Persepolis at the Azadi Stadium on Saturday saw the Japanese side wrap up a 2-0 aggregate scoreline following their first leg victory last week.
November 7 – The first matches the Asian qualifiers for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games women’s football competition have begun with Philippines being the fastest off the mark with a nine goal win over Singapore in the opening game.
October 10 – Japan claimed the 2018 AFC U-16 Championship title on Sunday thanks to a narrow 1-0 win over Tajikistan in Malaysia.
October 3 – Kashima Antlers and Iranian giants Persepolis moved one step closer to an AFC Champions League title showdown after both sides earned narrow victories in the first leg of their respective semi-finals.
September 4 – Thailand will host the next Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U23 Championship 2020 which will also act as a qualification for the Olympic games to be held in Tokyo that year.
August 30 – Two goals from Dejan Damjanovic (pictured) helped South Korea’s Suwon Samsung Bluewings edge closer to a place in the last four of this season’s Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League following a 3-0 win at domestic rivals Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in the first leg of their quarter-final clash on Wednesday.
April 17 – The Korean Republic became the fifth Asian Football Confederation (AFC) nation to qualify for the France 2019 Women’s World Cup with a 5-0 win over the Philippines in the fifth place play-off at the Women’s Asian Cup in Jordan.
September 1 – China kept their Russia 2018 World Cup qualifying hopes alive after a 1-0 home win over Uzbekistan in Wuhan. Asian World Cup qualifying is going down to the wire with only Iran and Japan having secured places with a final round of fixtures to be played this weekend.
June 7 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has rebranded its top two club competitions – the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup – with a redesign.
By Samindra Kunti
April 21 – Aizawl FC and Mohun Bagan square off this weekend in the season’s penultimate match day in a game that could prove decisive for the I-league, and which may propel the team from Mizoram to a historic title.
April 20 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has stepped in to mediate in the search for a venue for the postponed North Korea vs Malaysia 2019 Asian Cup qualifier that was postponed from the original March 28 date and rescheduled for June 8.
