AFC U-23 Asian Cup facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
AFC U-23 Asian Cup

Organising body	AFC
Founded	2012 (as AFC U-22 Championship)
Region	Asia (including Australia)
Number of teams	16
Current champions	Japan (2nd title)
Most successful team(s)	Japan (2 titles)

The AFC U-23 Asian Cup, previously the AFC U-22 Championship (in 2013) and AFC U-23 Championship (between 2016 and 2020), is a biennial international football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-23 national teams of Asia. Each edition of the tournament that is in an even year is linked to the qualification process for the Olympic Games, whereby the top three teams in the tournament qualify directly and the fourth-placed team may enter an intercontinental play-off match depending on the slot allocations.

The first edition was initially set to be held in 2013 and its qualification matches in 2012, but the finals tournament was postponed to be played in January 2014 due to the 2013 EAFF East Asian Cup. In 2016 the tournament was also renamed from the "AFC U-22 Championship" to the "AFC U-23 Championship". The tournament was rebranded as the "AFC U-23 Asian Cup" in 2021.

In July 2023, the AFC announced that each non-Olympic edition of the tournament would be hosted by the same association hosting the next AFC Asian Cup. However, on 24 May 2024, AFC announced that the tournament will be held quadrennially from 2028, effectively discontinued the non-Olympic qualifiers’ editions from 2030.

Format

The overview of the competition format in the 2016 tournament was as follows:

• 16 teams competed in the final tournament, including the hosts which were automatically qualified.
• Teams were seeded by the result of 2013 AFC U-22 Championship.
• The tournament was held in 18 days.
• 3 or 4 stadiums in at most 2 cities were needed to host the tournament.

In addition, players would be ineligible for participating in the AFC U-17 Asian Cup if they participated in a higher age group competition (this tournament or the AFC U-20 Asian Cup), though in reality it is rarely enforced.

Results

Edition	Year	Hosts		Final				Third place match
				Champions	Score	Runners-up		Third place	Score	Fourth place
1	2013	Oman		Iraq	1–0	Saudi Arabia		Jordan	0–0 (aet)	South Korea
2	2016	Qatar		Japan	3–2	South Korea		Iraq	2–1 (aet)	Qatar
3	2018	China		Uzbekistan	2–1 (aet)	Vietnam		Qatar	1–0	South Korea
4	2020	Thailand		South Korea	1–0 (aet)	Saudi Arabia		Australia	1–0	Uzbekistan
5	2022	Uzbekistan		Saudi Arabia	2–0	Uzbekistan		Japan	3–0	Australia
6	2024	Qatar		Japan	1–0	Uzbekistan		Iraq	2–1 (aet)	Indonesia
7	2026	Saudi Arabia		TBD	In Spanish: Copa Asiática Sub-23 de la AFC para niños Football at the Summer Olympics AFC U-20 Asian Cup AFC U-17 Asian Cup AFC Asian Cup