2012 AFC Challenge Cup

The 2012 AFC Challenge Cup was the fourth edition of the tournament, an international football competition for Asian Football Confederation (AFC) member nations that are mainly categorized as "emerging countries" in the defunct Vision Asia programme. It took place in Nepal from 8–19 March 2012. Unlike in previous editions of the tournament, there were no automatic qualifiers. Therefore, 2010 champions North Korea, runners-up Turkmenistan, and third-placed Tajikistan had to navigate the qualification phase in order to return to the finals. North Korea successfully defended their title and qualified for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup.

Hosts
Maldives, Nepal, and Palestine expressed an interest to bid to host the tournament. A decision on which country would be hosts was set to be made by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on 14 June 2011, but was deferred until the AFC Executive Committee on 29 July 2011. The committee decided to endorse Nepal as the hosts of the AFC Challenge Cup 2012 Finals.

Qualification
The qualification stage saw 20 eligible member associations compete in qualifiers.


 * An initial pre-qualifying round (home and away) narrowed the field to 16 teams.
 * The final qualifying round consist of four groups of four teams each with the group winners and runners-up qualifying.
 * Only the eight teams that qualified for the tournament finals were permitted to bid to be hosts.

Qualified nations

 * – Qualification Group A winners
 * – Qualification Group A runners-up
 * 🇮🇳 india – Qualification Group B winners
 * 🇹🇲 turkmenistan – Qualification Group B runners-up
 * 🇲🇻 maldives – Qualification Group C winners
 * 🇹🇯 tajikistan – Qualification Group C runners-up
 * 🇰🇵 north korea – Qualification Group D winners
 * – Qualification Group D runners-up

Draw
The draw for the final tournament was held on 1 December 2011 at the Soaltee Crown Plaza Hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Squads
Each team could name a squad of 23 players.

Group stage
All times are Nepal Time (NPT) – UTC+5:45

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.

Individual awards
The following awards were given for the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup:

Team of the tournament
The team of the tournament – Dream Team in a 4-4-2 formation.


 * Goalkeeper: 🇰🇵 Ri Myong-guk
 * Defenders: 🇰🇵 Ri Kwang-hyok, 🇹🇲 Şöhrat Söýünow, Khaled Mahdi, 🇰🇵 Jon Kwang-ik
 * Midfielders: 🇹🇲 Arslanmyrat Amanow, 🇹🇲 Guwanç Rejepow, 🇰🇵 Pak Nam-chol I, 🇰🇵 Jong Il-gwan
 * Forwards: 🇰🇵 Pak Kwang-ryong, Phil Younghusband
 * Coach: 🇰🇵 Yun Jong-su (North Korea)

Goalscorers

 * 6 goals
 * Phil Younghusband


 * 3 goals
 * 🇰🇵 Pak Nam-chol I


 * 2 goals


 * 🇰🇵 Jang Kuk-chol
 * 🇰🇵 Pak Kwang-ryong
 * Abdelhamid Abuhabib
 * Fahed Attal
 * Ángel Guirado
 * 🇹🇲 Arslanmyrat Amanow
 * 🇹🇲 Gahrymanberdi Çoňkaýew


 * 1 goal


 * 🇰🇵 Jang Song-hyok
 * 🇰🇵 Jon Kwang-ik
 * 🇰🇵 Jong Il-gwan
 * 🇰🇵 Ri Chol-myong
 * 🇰🇵 Ri Kwang-hyok
 * 🇲🇻 Hassan Adhuham
 * 🇲🇻 Mohamed Rasheed
 * Alaa Atiya
 * Ashraf Nu'man
 * Houssam Wadi
 * Juan Luis Guirado
 * 🇹🇯 Nuriddin Davronov
 * 🇹🇯 Akhtam Khamrakulov
 * 🇹🇯 Aleksey Negmatov
 * 🇹🇲 Guwanç Hangeldiýew
 * 🇹🇲 Ruslan Mingazow
 * 🇹🇲 Berdi Şamyradow
 * 🇹🇲 Elman Tagaýew


 * 1 own goal
 * Biraj Maharjan (playing against Turkmenistan)

Post-tournament team ranking
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.