AFC Cup: Al-Kuwait and Iraq’s Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya most successful teams - full list of winners
The AFC Cup has been won by 13 different football clubs in its 19 seasons. Get the full winners list.
Football
The AFC Cup was the second-tier continental club football competition played in Asia before it was replaced by the AFC Champions League 2 competition starting from the 2024-25 season.
Distribution of slots for both the AFC Cup and the AFC Champions League, the top-tier tournament in Asia, was done on the basis of the AFC Club Competitions Rankings, which is determined by the level of club football played within a particular country.
Countries with better rankings get more slots in the ACL while nations ranked lower down are granted AFC Cup slots. As such, countries with strong domestic football leagues such as Japan, the Republic of Korea and Qatar have had very little involvement in the AFC Cup.
Organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the football governing body of Asia, the AFC Cup was first held in 2004 and involved 18 teams. Al-Jaish became the first team to win the AFC Cup after defeating fellow Syrian opponents Al-Wahda on away goals.
Al-Kuwait SC and Iraq’s Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya are the most successful teams in AFC Cup history, having won the title on three occasions each.
Kuwaiti clubs have won the competition four times, making it the most successful country in the competition. Teams from Iraq and Jordan have won the trophy on three occasions while sides from Syria and Bahrain have won the trophy twice.
Over the two decades that the AFC Cup has been held, Uzbek side FC Nasaf and Malaysian outfit Johor Darul Ta’zim are the only two teams from outside West Asia who have won the tournament. Nasaf won in 2011 while Johor are the 2015 champions.
The now-defunct Mahindra United and Kolkata giants East Bengal were India’s representatives at the inaugural AFC Cup in 2004.
The farthest any Indian club has reached in the AFC Cup was in 2016 when the Sunil Chhetri-led Bengaluru FC finished runners-up after losing the final 1-0 at the hands of Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya.
Dempo and East Bengal reached the semi-finals of the competition in 2008 and 2013, respectively.
During the first five years of the tournament, winners were determined after a two-legged final. Al-Muharraq were the last team to win in a two-legged final in 2008 before the competition headed to a single-match system, which persisted till its final season in 2023-24.
Australia's Central Coast Mariners are the final AFC Cup champions. The Mariners beat Al Ahed 1-0 in the final to win the 2023-24 AFC Cup trophy.