2011 AFC Asian Cup

Qatar, India and Iran all lodged interest in hosting the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, while Australia also considered making a late bid. Qatar officially submitted their bid on 19 June 2006, while India withdrew their interest and Iran failed to submit proper documentation for their bid on time.

Qatar was announced as host nation on 29 July 2007, during the 2007 AFC Asian Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia. Due to FIFA regulations stating that confederation events can be hosted either in January or July, and July being peak summer heat in the Middle East, 2011 Asian Cup took place in January of that year.

Qualification

The teams finishing first, second and third in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup, and the host nation for the 2011 competition, received automatic byes to the finals. They were joined by the top two finishers in each of five qualifying groups. The AFC Challenge Cup acted as a further qualification competition for eligible countries within the emerging and developing category of member associations. The winners of the AFC Challenge Cup competitions in 2008 and 2010 qualified automatically to the 2011 AFC Asian Cup finals. These two winners were India and North Korea. It was India's first play for the Asian Cup since 1984, and North Korea's first since 1992.

The final day of qualification was 3 March 2010.

Draw

The draw for the AFC Asian Cup 2011 was held on 23 April 2010 in Doha, Qatar. Qatar were seeded among the top group.

Seeding

Seeding was announced on 22 April 2010. Qatar were automatically placed in Group A.

Venues

Members of the AFC Organising Committee for AFC Asian Cup 2011 have agreed the use of five stadiums for the 2011 tournament.

Match ball

The Nike Total 90 Tracer was the official match ball of the tournament.

Officials

Twelve referees and twenty four assistants were selected for the tournament:

Squads

Each country's final squad of 23 players was submitted by 28 December 2010.

Group stage

All times are Arabian Standard Time (AST) – UTC+3

Tie-breaking criteria

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss) and tie breakers are in following order:

1. Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
2. Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
3. Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
4. Goal difference in all the group matches;
5. Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches;
6. Kicks from the penalty mark if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play;
7. Fewer score calculated according to the number of yellow and red cards received in the group matches; (1 point for each yellow card, 3 points for each red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for each direct red card, 4 points for each yellow card followed by a direct red card)
8. Drawing of lots.

Group A

Uzbekistan surprised the group by defeating Qatar in the opening match and defeating highly favoured Kuwait. Qatar picked themselves up after the opening loss and won the remaining two games.

Group B

Jordan were major underdogs going into the group against powerhouses Japan and 2007 runners up Saudi Arabia, but surprised the football world by taking second place in the group.

Group C

Group C went down exactly as most people predicted with the two giants in Australia and South Korea going through.

Group D

Powerhouses Iran and defending champions Iraq both went through as expected, but the surprise of the group was the performance of the United Arab Emirates who scored no goals and had a player score an own goal in two consecutive matches. Amongst all teams in the Group stage (in all four groups), Iran was the only team to win all its games and advance with the full 9 points.

Knockout stage

All times are Arabian Standard Time (AST) – UTC+3

Scorers

With five goals, Koo Ja-Cheol is the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 90 goals were scored by 60 different players, with three of them credited as own goals.

5 goals:

4 goals:

3 goals:

2 goals:

1 goal:

1 own goal:

2 own goals:

Final positions

As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

Theme song

For marketing of the event, the organisers opted for the slogan "Yalla Asia" with a song sung by international artists Jay Sean and Karl Wolf, featuring Radhika Vekaria. Yalla Asia was composed and written by Radhika Vekaria, Max Herman and Zoulikha El Fassi. Max Herman produced the record for Zoul Projects 2011.

Concerns and controversies

The AFC Asian Cup 2011 was not without controversy as concerns were risen about the extremely low crowds at most Asian Cup games not featuring the host nation Qatar. The average attendance was just 12,006, much lower than the previous AFC Asian Cup tournaments. North Korea and the United Arab Emirates both had the lowest attendance numbers with approximately 3,000 and 6,000 attendances respectively. The final match between Japan and Australia saw as many as 3,000 to 10,000 fans with valid tickets denied entry to the stadium which then allegedly sparked small skirmishes among fans, "It was just incredibly badly handled. There were kids and families, not causing any problem, being confronted by riot police and being told they weren't getting in," according to Andy Richardson, Al Jazeera's sports correspondent. The AFC stated that the gates were closed early for security concerns and organisers did not anticipate an influx of Japanese and Australian fans. The organising committee has offered to refund all tickets not redeemed at the match.

After staging the 2006 Asian Games, this Asian Cup was being closely watched as an indicator to see how Qatar copes with hosting a major international football tournament in preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.