2007 AFC Asian Cup

Initially, three Southeast Asian countries, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, represented each other bids hoping to win the rights to host the tournament. The then-AFC President Mohammed Bin Hammam proposed and presented a move to have four host nations for the 2007 Asian Cup to these Southeast Asian states. This led to a scramble to have the fourth host country, which Vietnam was later chosen to co-host alongside the three others.[2]

However, Bin Hammam later regretted this decision and called it his "mistake", citing the financial and logistic difficulties in organising an event across four countries. He said that "It is proving very difficult for [the executive committee as they] have to have four organising committees, four media centres and there are also financial considerations." He also revealed that "[he would] definitely [not do] it [again]", if he had the choice.

In June 2005, the AFC warned Thailand that it needed to improve its facilities before 2007, otherwise it would be dropped, possibly being replaced with Singapore. On 12 August of the same year, the AFC confirmed that Thailand would be a co-host of the 2007 Asian Cup.[3] However, in October 2006, Thailand was again warned to improve its facilities in 90 days.[4]

The qualification ran from 22 February 2006 to 15 November 2006. For the first time, the defending champions (in this tournament, Japan) did not get an automatic qualification. Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam automatically qualified as co-hosts. Twenty-four teams were split into six groups of four to compete for the 12 remaining spots in the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Date qualification was secured	Previous appearances in tournament1, 2
Indonesia	00Co-hosts	7 August 2004	3 (1996, 2000, 2004)
Malaysia			2 (1976, 1980)
Thailand			5 (1972, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004)
Vietnam3			2 (19564, 19604)
Australia	Group D winner	16 August 2006	0 (debut)
Qatar	Group F winner	6 September 2006	6 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004)
Japan	Group A winner	6 September 2006	5 (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004)
Saudi Arabia	Group A runner-up	6 September 2006	6 (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004)
Iran	Group B winner	11 October 2006	10 (1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004)
South Korea	Group B runner-up	11 October 2006	10 (1956, 1960, 1964, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004)
United Arab Emirates	Group C winner	11 October 2006	6 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2004)
Oman	Group C runner-up	11 October 2006	1 (2004)
Iraq	Group E winner	11 October 2006	5 (1972, 1976, 1996, 2000, 2004)
China	Group E runner-up	11 October 2006	8 (1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004)
Bahrain	Group D runner-up	15 November 2006	2 (1988, 2004)
Uzbekistan	Group F runner-up	15 November 2006	3 (1996, 2000, 2004)

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year

² Italic indicates host

³ Vietnam's debut since the reunification of Vietnam in 1976

⁴ As South Vietnam

For the first time, the seeds are based on the October 2006 FIFA World Rankings instead of the basis of the performance from the previous AFC Asian Cup competition. This was to ensure that the same number of strong teams do not meet in the early stage.[5]

The four seeded teams were announced on 19 December 2006. The seeds comprised Pot 4 in the draw. Pot 1 consists of the teams from all co-hosts.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Indonesia (153)  Malaysia (152)  Thailand (137)  Vietnam (172)	China (84)  Iraq (83)  United Arab Emirates (87)  Bahrain (97)	Qatar (58)  Uzbekistan (45)  Saudi Arabia (64)  Oman (72)	Australia (39)  Iran (38)  Japan (47)  South Korea (51)

The draw was held on 19 December 2006 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

16 referees and 24 assistant referees were officially cleared following a fitness test on 2 July in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. One referee and two assistant referees were also named from the CAF.[6]

(†): Replaced Shamsul Maidin after he pulled out with injury.[7]

Participating countries.

Results of the participating teams

The Asian Cup saw many upsets in the early stages of the tournament, with tournament favourites Australia and South Korea performing poorly in the group stage.

In Group A, Oman held the Socceroos to a surprising draw. The Omanis took the lead and would have won, if not for an injury time goal from Tim Cahill. Next, joint hosts and the lowest-ranked team in the competition, Vietnam, shocked the UAE with a 2–0 victory. In the same group, Qatar held Japan to a shock 1–1 draw. The result caused Japan's coach Ivica Osim to fly into a rage in which he branded his players as 'amateurs' and reduced his interpreter to tears.[8] In Group D, Indonesia continued the undefeated streak of the hosts by defeating Bahrain 2–1. Malaysia ended up as the only host country to lose their opening match after a crushing 5-1 defeat to China. Thailand recorded just their 2nd win in the Asian Cup finals (their other was in 1972 against Cambodia), and its first ever win in regulation, when they beat Oman 2–0 on 12 July. Meanwhile, Australia was upset by a 3–1 defeat to Iraq the following day, leaving them floundering in the tournament despite high expectations in third place. However, Australia's 4–0 demolition of Thailand at the last match day saw them into the quarter-finals, as Oman was unable to overcome Iraq in a goalless draw.

Vietnam continued to stun all predictions when they drew 1-1 with 2006 ASIAD champions Qatar, while Japan finally got their first win when they thrashed the UAE 3–1. Although Vietnam lost 1–4 to Japan, the UAE's 2–1 comeback win over Qatar witnessed Vietnam's first time ever to qualify into the next round and became the only host to progress through despite being in the group of three different champions. On the other hand, while Malaysia continued its poor form with 0–5 and 0–2 losses to Uzbekistan and Iran, thus going out of the tournament without a point. China's shocking elimination occurred when they were hammered 0–3 by the Uzbeks, despite having drawn 2–2 with Iran and was expected to qualify from group stage with an easy win.

Bahrain shocked the whole tournament by defeating South Korea 2–1 in Group D, leaving the Koreans in the verge of elimination when Indonesia was beaten 1–2 by Saudi Arabia. However, South Korea finally progressed with a 1–0 win over hosts Indonesia and with Saudi Arabia destroying Bahrain 4–0, it was enough to seal them in.

In the quarter-finals, Iraq defeated Vietnam 2–0, while South Korea needed a penalty shootout to eliminate Iran 4–2. Japan also needed a penalty shootout to defeat Australia 4–3 (this was the first time Australia's goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer had ever come out on the losing end of a penalty shoot-out), and Saudi Arabia won over Uzbekistan 2–1. Iraq upset the Koreans in the semi-finals by winning 4–3 on penalties, resulting in thousands of Iraqis celebrating in the streets of Baghdad. Over 50 Iraqis were killed by terrorist bombs targeting these crowds.[9] In the other semi-finals, Saudi Arabia eliminated defending champions Japan after a 3–2 win to make an all-Arab affair for the final match.

Iraq went on to defeat the Saudis 1–0, taking the Asian Cup title. Iraqi forward and captain Younis Mahmoud was given the title of Most Valuable Player. South Korea took third place, narrowly beating Japan 6–5 on penalties. It was the third consecutive match in the tournament that South Korea drew 0–0 before a penalty shootout. Iraq, Saudi Arabia and South Korea, as the top three teams in the tournament, all received automatic berths to the 2011 Asian Cup along with the next hosts Qatar.[10]

• Sports diplomacy

Wikimedia Commons has media related to AFC Asian Cup 2007.

• AFC Asian Cup 2007 Official Site (Archived)
• Asian Cup 2007 at RSSSF