Central Asian Football Association

Central Asian Football Association (CAFA) is one of five regional bodies that govern association football in Asia. It governs association football, futsal, and beach football in Central Asia. Headquartered in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, CAFA consists of six full national association members i.e Afghanistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan with India & Oman as invitational members.

CAFA consists of the national football associations of Central Asia, and runs competitions between national teams, and also controls the prize money, regulations, as well as 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 2015 AFC Asian Cup. As a result, CAFA will be able to have representative member(s) 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 October 2023, CAFA and AIFF signed a memorandum of understanding which will facilitate the participation of Indian teams in the Central Asian tournaments.

Member associations
CAFA consists of six member associations. All of them are members of the Asian Football Confederation.

Current title holders
CAFA runs several competitions which cover men's, women's, youth and futsal.

Events by Year
Source:

Events timeline

 * Men
 * Women

Medals
As of 12 July 2024 (After 2024 CAFA U-20 Championship).

Asian Games

 * Football at the Asian Games was a senior tournament until 1998.
 * Football at the Asian Games has been an under-23 tournament since 2002.

Men's National Teams
Rankings are calculated by FIFA.


 * Last updated as of 18 July 2024.

Leading Men's team:

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
 * Last updated 9 June 2023.

Leading Women's team:

By country
(only highest goalscorers from each country)


 * Players in bold are active international players.