West Asian Football Federation

West Asian Football Federation
	Logo since 2023
	Member countries
Formation	15 May 2001; 23 years ago
Type	Sports organization
Headquarters	Amman, Jordan
Membership	12 member associations
President	Prince Ali bin Al Hussein
Parent organization	AFC
Website	the-waff.com (in English)

The West Asian Football Federation (WAFF; Arabic: اتحاد غرب آسيا لكرة القدم) is a regional sub-confederation of association football, governed under the Asian Football Confederation. Founded in 2001, it governs football, futsal and beach football for nations in West Asia. The WAFF consists of 12 member associations.

History

The founding members of the West Asian Football Federation are Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. In 2009, three more associations, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Yemen, joined the federation. Four other West Asian nations, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia, joined in 2010.^[2] Iran left the federation on 10 June 2014, with the creation of the Central Asian Football Association.^[3]

Members

Code	Association	National teams	Founded	FIFA affiliation	UEFA affiliation	IOC member
BHR	Bahrain	Men's U23 U20 U17 U15 F BS Women's W U23 W U20 W U17 F	1957	1968	2010	Yes
IRQ	Iraq	Men's U23 U20 U17 U15 F BS Women's W U23 W U20 W U17 F	1948	1950	2001	Yes
JOR	Jordan	Men's U23 U20 U17 U15 F BS Women's W U23 W U20 W U17 F	1949	1956	2001	Yes
KUW	Kuwait	Men's U23 U20 U17 U15 F BS Women's W U23 W U20 W U17 F	1952	1964	2010	Yes
LBN	Lebanon	Men's U23 U20 U17 U15 F BS Women's W U23 W U20 W U17 F	1933	1936	2001	Yes
OMA	Oman	Men's U23 U20 U17 U15 F BS Women's W U23 W U20 W U17 F	1978	1978	2010	Yes
PLE	Palestine	Men's U23 U20 U17 U15 F BS Women's W U23 W U20 W U17 F	1998	1998	2001	Yes
QAT	Qatar	Men's U23 U20 U17 U15 F BS Women's W U23 W U20 W U17 F	1960	1963	2009	Yes
KSA	Saudi Arabia	Men's U23 U20 U17 U15 F BS Women's W U23 W U20 W U17 F	1956	1956	2010	Yes
SYR	Syria	Men's U23 U20 U17 U15 F BS Women's W U23 W U20 W U17 F	1936	1937	2001	Yes
UAE	United Arab Emirates	Men's U23 U20 U17 U15 F BS Women's W U23 W U20 W U17 F	1971	1974	2009	Yes
YEM	Yemen	Men's U23 U20 U17 U15 F BS Women's W U23 W U20 W U17 F	1962	1980	2009	Yes

Former members

Association	Year	Note
Iran	2001–2014	^[a]

Competitions

Current title holders

Men's national teams
Tournament	Year	Champions	Title	Runners-up	Next edition^[4]
WAFF Championship	2019 (Final)	Bahrain	1st	Iraq	2025
WAFF U-23 Championship	2025	Oman	1st	Jordan	TBD
WAFF U-19 Championship	2024	Saudi Arabia	1st	United Arab Emirates	2025
WAFF U-16 Championship	2024	Syria	2nd	Saudi Arabia	TBD
WAFF Futsal Championship	2022	Kuwait	1st	Saudi Arabia	TBD
WAFF Beach Soccer Championship	2022	United Arab Emirates	1st	Oman	TBD
Women's national teams
WAFF Women's Championship	2024	Jordan	6th	Nepal	2026
WAFF U-20 Girls Championship	2025	Palestine	1st	Jordan	TBD
WAFF U-17 Girls Championship	2025	Lebanon	3rd	Syria	TBD
WAFF U-14 Girls Championship	2023	Syria	1st	Lebanon	TBD
WAFF Futsal Women's Championship	2022	Iraq	1st	Saudi Arabia	TBD
Men's club teams
—
Women's club teams
WAFF Women's Clubs Championship	2022	Safa	1st	Orthodox Club	2024

Titles by nation

As of 2024 WAFF U-23 Championship


Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Jordan (JOR)	12	12	11	35
2	Iran (IRI)	12	6	1	19
3	Iraq (IRQ)	8	3	9	20
4	Lebanon (LBN)	5	8	4	17
5	United Arab Emirates (UAE)	3	2	3	8
6	Syria (SYR)	2	6	11	19
7	Saudi Arabia (KSA)	2	5	1	8
8	Kuwait (KUW)	2	0	1	3
9	Bahrain (BHR)	1	2	8	11
10	Qatar (QAT)	1	1	2	4
11	Yemen (YEM)	1	0	1	2
12	Japan (JPN)	1	0	0	1
12	South Korea (KOR)	1	0	0	1
14	Oman (OMA)	0	2	3	5
15	Palestine (PLE)	0	1	7	8
16	Australia (AUS)	0	1	0	1
	India (IND)	0	1	0	1
	Nepal (NEP)	0	1	0	1
Totals (18 entries)		51	51	62	164

FIFA World Rankings

Men's national football team

As of 23 June 2022

WAFF	AFC	FIFA	Country	Points	+/−
1	5	49	Qatar	1441.41	2
2	6	60	Saudi Arabia	1435.74	4
3	5	69	United Arab Emirates	1346.09	1
6	9	72	Iraq	1338.91	2
5	8	69	Oman	1323.03
6	12	85	Bahrain	1289.25	4
7	13	86	Jordan	1279.74	5
8	14	89	Syria	1265.03	1
9	15	94	Palestine	1233.72	6
10	18	100	Lebanon	1211.71	3
11	27	148	Kuwait	1053.41	2
12	28	153	Yemen	1023.52	2

Leading Men's team:

Women's national football team

As of 24 March 2023

FIFA Women's Rankings (as of 6 March 2025)^[5]
WAFF*	FIFA	+/-	National Team	Points
1	74		Jordan	1319.13
2	92	1	Bahrain	1216.48
3	112	4	United Arab Emirates	1164
4	131	3	Lebanon	1095.77
5	136	1	Palestine	1090.51
6	161		Syria	931.42
7	166		Saudi Arabia	890.49
8	173		Iraq	862.8
*Local rankings based on FIFA ranking points

Leading Women's team:

Men's national futsal team

Futsal Rankings (as of 6 May 2024)^[6]
WAFF	FIFA	National Team	Points
1	35	Kuwait	1115.99
2	42	Iraq	1091.27
3	48	Saudi Arabia	1049.97
4	53	Lebanon	1032.42
5	73	Bahrain	978.69
6	81	Jordan	968.31
7	93	Qatar	945.32
8	96	Oman	940.88
9	102	United Arab Emirates	925.95
10	122	Palestine	863.57

Note: (*) Inactive

Women's national futsal team

Futsal Women's Rankings (as of 6 May 2024)^[7]
WAFF	FIFA	National Team	Points
1	29	Lebanon	981.18
2	34	Palestine	974.58
3	37	Bahrain	962.22
4	51	Saudi Arabia	899.62
5	53	Iraq	887.88
6	55	United Arab Emirates	885.35
7	62	Kuwait	863.43
8	67	Oman	848.46

Note: (*) Inactive

Men's national beach soccer team

AFF Men's National Beach Soccer Team Ranking by BSWW
Update: 8 April 2024

WAFF	World	Country	Points
1	7	United Arab Emirates	1955.75
2	17	Oman	1172.75
3	24	Saudi Arabia	696
4	44	Bahrain	298.5
5	55	Kuwait	222
6	57	Palestine	199
7	63	Lebanon	132.75

Controversy

On 29 January 2015, after the defeat of Iraq and the United Arab Emirates during the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, West Asian Football Federation members reportedly sought to remove Australia from the AFC primarily due to "Australia benefiting hugely from Asian involvement without giving much in return".^[8]

Notes

^ Formed the Central Asian Football Association

References

^ "Chapter 1". Archived from the original on October 4, 2011. Retrieved October 1, 2010.
^ "WAFF Articles and Definitions". The-waff.com. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
^ "Central Asians meet Sheikh Salman to create CAFA". aff.org.af. 17 May 2014. Archived from the original on 29 October 2014. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
^ "Championships". www.the-waff.com. West Asian Football Federation (WAFF). Retrieved 4 July 2022.
^ "The FIFA/Coca-Cola Women's World Ranking". FIFA. 6 March 2025. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
^ "The FIFA Futsal Men's World Ranking" (PDF). FIFA. 6 May 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
^ "The FIFA Women's Futsal World Ranking" (PDF). FIFA. 6 May 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
^ "Angry Gulf nations leading charge to kick Australia out of Asian Football Confederation". The Sydney Morning Herald. 29 January 2015. Retrieved 2016-02-26.

External links

Official website (in English)
Official website (in Arabic)

[4] Formed the Central Asian Football Association

[1] "Chapter 1". Archived from the original on October 4, 2011. Retrieved October 1, 2010.

[2] "WAFF Articles and Definitions". The-waff.com. Retrieved 2016-02-26.

[3] "Central Asians meet Sheikh Salman to create CAFA". aff.org.af. 17 May 2014. Archived from the original on 29 October 2014. Retrieved 29 October 2014.

[5] "Championships". www.the-waff.com. West Asian Football Federation (WAFF). Retrieved 4 July 2022.

[FIFA_Women's_World_Rankings-6] "The FIFA/Coca-Cola Women's World Ranking". FIFA. 6 March 2025. Retrieved 6 March 2025.

[7] "The FIFA Futsal Men's World Ranking" (PDF). FIFA. 6 May 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2024.

[8] "The FIFA Women's Futsal World Ranking" (PDF). FIFA. 6 May 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2024.

[9] "Angry Gulf nations leading charge to kick Australia out of Asian Football Confederation". The Sydney Morning Herald. 29 January 2015. Retrieved 2016-02-26.

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v t e National men's football teams of Asia (AFC)
AFC Asian Cup
West Asia (WAFF)	Bahrain Iraq Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Oman Palestine Qatar Saudi Arabia Syria United Arab Emirates Yemen
Central Asia (CAFA)	Afghanistan Iran Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan
South Asia (SAFF)	Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka
East Asia (EAFF)	China Chinese Taipei¹ Guam Hong Kong Japan Macau Mongolia North Korea Northern Mariana Islands² South Korea
Southeast Asia (AFF)	Australia Brunei Cambodia Indonesia Laos Malaysia Myanmar Philippines Singapore Thailand Timor-Leste Vietnam
Defunct	Malaya Manchukuo North Vietnam South Vietnam South Yemen
Former	Israel (moved to UEFA in 1994) Kazakhstan (moved to UEFA in 2002) New Zealand (formed the OFC in 1966)
¹ Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, competes as "Chinese Taipei" ² Not a member of FIFA