Asian Nations Cup. Why including Asia so late? Two reasons: the first is technical – it is still very difficult to gather reliable information about Asian football of bygone years. In real time it was almost impossible – African football was covered a bit, but the Asian one was entirely out of sight and mind. Things started to change more or less with the 1982 World Cup. So far, Asia attracted no interest – the surprising performance of North Korea at the 1966 World Cup was the only memorable moment of Asian football history in the European mind. The politically motivated expulsion of Israel contributed to the lack of interest – it was the only country capable of attracting some outside interest and this largely because of Israeli players going to play professionally in Europe and North America. Things, however, started to change in the second half of the 1970s, strongly connected to economic prosperity – first Iran, at least until the monarchy was replaced by religious dictatorship, then Japan and South Korea quietly went into more serious development of their game, then Arabic wealth, based on oil money, started to invest in football. Iran played well at the 1978 World Cup, Kuwait and South Korea were not just punching bags at the 1982 World Cup – the continental football was becoming serious and ready to compete equally at least with African football. It could be said that after 1982 Asia was included in the world’s football map. But the sport had already a long history on one hand and still was, on continental level, quite disorganized and amateurish, on the other hand.
The Asian championship started in 1956 and in 1984 it was already the 8th issue of it. So far, the winners were: 1956 – South Korea, 1960 – South Korea, 1964 – Israel, 1968 – Iran, 1972 – Iran, 1976 – Iran, 1980 – Kuwait. From a hindsight, tradition was already built up. Yet, it was difficult to consider such tradition – in reality, few countries were consistent participants. Compared to Africa, most Asian countries were not very interested in international football and political conflicts plagued the tournaments – Israel was banished, South and North Korea did not see eye to eye, Japan, China, and Taiwan were another cluster of problems, India and Pakistan. Vietnam was out because of the long war, Lebanon was not exactly able to play a role, because of domestic conflicts and so on. On top of political problems there was sheer size and distances – it was both difficult and expensive to travel, especially for amateur teams. The 1984 championship was no exception – Burma, Lebanon, Bahrain, Japan, Macao, Brunei, Iraq, and South Yemen withdrew from the tournament in the last minute. Malaysia had to be moved from Group 2 to Group 3 in the qualification stage and Afghanistan was included late. 21 countries played in the qualifying stage – divided somewhat geographically into 4 groups. The groups were played in Indonesia (Group 1), Saudi Arabia (Group 2), India (Group 3), and China (Group 4). The top 2 teams of each group moved to the finals, plus Singapore as hosts and Kuwait as the current holders of the title. Iran and Syria qualified from Group 1, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates from Group 2, South Korea and India from Group 3, and China and Qatar from Group 4. As a footnote, Nepal was the worst team at the qualifying stage – they lost all their games with goal-difference 0-30.
The finals were played in December 1984.
Group 1:
1.SAUDI ARABIA 4 2 2 0 4- 2 6
2.KUWAIT 4 2 1 1 4- 2 5
3.Qatar 4 1 2 1 3- 3 4
4.Syria 4 1 1 2 3- 5 3
5.South Korea 4 0 2 2 1- 3 2
Group 2:
1.CHINA 4 3 0 1 10- 2 6
2.IRAN 4 2 2 0 6- 1 6
3.UAE 4 2 0 2 3- 8 4
4.Singapore 4 1 1 2 3- 4 3
5.India 4 0 1 3 0- 7 1
A moment from China vs UAE. Seemingly, UAE was attacking, but China won 5-0.
In the semi-finals Saudi Arabia met Iran.
The match ended 1-1 and the Saudis prevailed only in the penalty shoot-out 5-4. Lucky to a point, for they equalized in the 90th minute.
In the other semi-final China beat Kuwait 1-0 in overtime.
Iran and Kuwait played for the 3rd place and the match ended 1-1. Kuwait got bronze medals after winning the penalty shoot-out 5-3.
There was less drama at the final between Saudi Arabia and China.
One must put aside political tensions here – the clash between a communist country and staunch anti-communist one was peaceful.
The Saudis scored early – Shaye M.S. Al-Nafeesah in the 12th minute and generally dominated the final.
Clearly the stronger team, they scored a second goal – Majed Mohammed Abdullah in the 47th minute and that was pretty much all.
The Saudis celebrated in manner quite unusual from today’s perspective and won.
Saudi Arabia won its first Asian title. Great moment, indeed. True winners too – they did not lose even one match during the whole campaign, ending with 7 wins and 3 ties. Their most difficult match was the semi-final against Iran.
China was worthy second – its team had wonderful campaign and at the end was the most awarded squad: awarded for sportsmanship, best player, and sharing the ‘Go for goals’ award. But it was rather incidental performance – the power was Arabic football: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar. Iran was riding on old glory – looked like the country’s football was in decline, because of the new political situation in the country. South Korea was perhaps a disappointment. Yet, the main protagonists of the Asian ascent were all in the finals – South Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait. Only Japan was missing – but they did not participated in the tournament, and China’s success may be considered as an early sign of development from today’s point of view.