Central Asian Football Association
Central Asian Football Association is one of five regional bodies that govern association football in Asia. It governs association football, futsal, and beach football in Central Asia and countries neighboring the region. Headquartered in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, CAFA consists of six full national association members: Afghanistan, Football Federation [Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran], Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
CAFA consists of the national football associations of Central Asia, runs competitions between national and club teams, and controls the prize money, regulations, and media rights to those competitions. CAFA aims to develop and strengthen the game of football throughout the region by raising the standards and creating more opportunities for the Member Associations for further growth.
In June 2014, the association was in principle approved by the Asian Football Confederation and approved at the Extraordinary Congress in January 2015 during the AFC Asian Cup">Asian Football Confederation">AFC Asian Cup. As a result, CAFA will be able to have representative member on the AFC executive committee.
The formation of CAFA was spearheaded by the Iranian Football Federation following disputes with West Asian Football Federation members. It was reported that AFC President Salman [Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa] gained politically from the creation of the new zone.
History
Members of the six nations met with AFC president Sheikh Salman on 10 May 2014 to talk about the possibility of creating a new Asian football zone. The delegations were invited by the AFC president following an initiative and proposed by Afghanistan and Iran. At the extraordinary AFC congress on 9 June 2014 in São Paulo, the plan of the new zone was ratified by the congress. It was subsequently approved at the AFC Extraordinary Congress in January 2015. CAFA's main headquarters after its foundation is located in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.In 2018, the inaugural edition of the CAFA Women's Championship was held in Uzbekistan. In June 2023, the inaugural edition of the CAFA Nations Cup was held in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. In October 2023, CAFA and AIFF signed a memorandum of understanding which will facilitate the participation of Indian teams in the Central Asian tournaments. In February 2025, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan submitted a joint bid to host the 2031 AFC Asian Cup. In April 2025, it was announced that two European teams, Armenia national [futsal team|Armenia] and Russia, had been invited to the 2025 CAFA Men's Futsal Championship, hosted by Iran. In June 2025, the second edition of the CAFA Nations Cup was announced to be held in August and September 2025, co-hosted by Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
Member associations
CAFA consists of six member associations. All of them are members of the Asian Football Confederation.| List of [FIFA country codes|Code] | Association | National teams | Founded | FIFA affiliation | AFC affiliation | CAFA affiliation | IOC member | Former federation |
| AFG | 1933 | 1948 | 1954 | 2015 | SAFF | |||
| IRN | 1920 | 1948 | 1954 | 2015 | WAFF | |||
| KGZ | 1992 | 1994 | 1994 | 2015 | ||||
| TJK | 1936 | 1994 | 1994 | 2015 | ||||
| TKM | 1992 | 1994 | 1994 | 2015 | ||||
| UZB | 1946 | 1994 | 1994 | 2015 |
Competitions
Current title holders
CAFA runs several competitions which cover men's, women's, youth and futsal.Events by Year
Source:Events timelineCompetitions:
MedalsAs of 8 September 2025.Tournament recordFIFA Futsal World CupRankingsMen's National Teamsare calculated by FIFA.
ImageSize = width:150 height:300 PlotArea = left:40 right:0 bottom:5 top:10 DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/2015 till:10/07/2025 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:2015 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical format:yyyy
from:01/01/2015 till:end atpos:65 color:black width:0.5 Colors = id:Uzbekistan value:blue id:Iran value:white PlotData= bar:Leaders width:25 mark: align:left fontsize:S from:01/01/2015 till:end shift: text:"Iran" color:Iran Women's National Teams* Provisionally listed due to not having played more than five matches against officially ranked teams** Inactive for more than 18 months and therefore not ranked
ImageSize = width:200 height:200 PlotArea = left:40 right:0 bottom:5 top:10 DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/2015 till:06/03/2025 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:2015 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical format:yyyy Colors = id:Uzbekistan value:blue id:Iran value:white PlotData= bar:Leaders width:25 mark: align:left fontsize:S from:01/01/2015 till:07/12/2018 shift: text:"Uzbekistan" color:Uzbekistan from:07/12/2018 till:29/03/2019 shift: text:"Iran" color:Iran from:01/01/2019 till:end shift: text:"Uzbekistan" color:Uzbekistan Individual statisticsTop goalscorer in men's footballBy country
|