The AFC U-20 Asian Cup, formerly known as the AFC Youth Championship and AFC U-19 Championship, is a biennial international association football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-20 national teams of Asia that also serves as a qualification tournament for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. The competition has been held since 1959. Between 1959 and 1978, the tournament was held annually (without qualification); since 1980, it has been held every two years. The 1980 AFC Youth Championship had a qualification stage for first time. The tournament has been played in a number of different formats during its existence. Currently, it consists of two stages, similar to the AFC's other Asian Championship competitions. The qualifying stage is open to all AFC members and the final stage is contested between 16 teams. The most recent edition, the 41st, was held in Uzbekistan. The AFC have proposed switching the tournament from under-19 to under-20 starting from 2023. Moreover, the tournament will also be rebranded from the "AFC U-19 Championship" to the "AFC U-20 Asian Cup".

Format

History

Results

1 Title shared. 2 Third place shared. 3 Final tournaments in round-robin format. 4 No third place match played since 2008; losing semi-finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

Successful national teams

Notes:

Records and statistics

Awards

Participating nations

Summary (1959–2023)

1 No longer an AFC member. 2 Represented South Vietnam from 1959 to 1974. 3 Representing South Yemen in 1975 and North Yemen in 1978. 4 Not an AFC member: participated in tournament as part of intercontinental play-off to qualify for the 1993 FIFA World Youth Championship.

FIFA U-20 World Cup performances