Football in Asia

Like everywhere else in the world, football is very popular in Asia. Asia has the most populous of the six FIFA confederations; Asians make up a full half of all footballers, all over the world.

In the Asian Football Confederation, there are currently 46 member countries, a testimony to the popularity of the sport in the region. The organization was formed in the Philippines in May of 1954, and was recognized by FIFA as such the next month. Its first major competition was the Asian Cup, held in Hong Kong two years after the confederation's formation. Its headquarters are in Malaysia, and it hosts ten national tournaments, three of them being for women's teams only and one being for youth teams only. There are also three club tournaments: the AFC Champions League, the AFC Cup, and the AFC President's Cup.

As Asia has some extremely small countries in it, there are basically two teams for every country: a men's team and a women's team. Unlike other countries, such as the United States or the United Kingdom, when referring to team names, one only has to refer to the country.

Despite the fact that it is the Asian Football Confederation, participation is not limited to only those of Asian descent. For example, a Serbian coach of the Chinese national team, Vladimir Petrovic, is obviously not Chinese, nor even Asian, but Eastern European. Though not typical in the AFC, this is also not rare, and definitely not unheard of.

As anyone can see, Asia is a key component of this world's obvious fascination with football. Hosting fully half of the entire world's players, Asia's continued participation in world football is vital to the improvement of the game. Football clearly brings the world together, despite our many differences. Keep this in mind the next time you watch a game!!!

FIFA Soccer 08 was released last year, but that doesn't make its rating any less: an 8.5 on a 10 point scale. It runs at about $50-$60 at the major retailers.

And football fans, watch for FIFA Soccer 09, coming out in October of this year!

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