1956 AFC Asian Cup
International football competition
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 1956 AFC Asian Cup was the inaugural AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial continental association football competition introduced and organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The final tournament was held in Hong Kong from 1 September to 15 September 1956 as a four-team round-robin competition with no final. It was won by South Korea.[1][2]
| Asian Cup Hong Kong 1956 1956年亞洲盃足球賽 | |
|---|---|
South Korea, the winner of 1956 AFC Asian Cup, at Hong Kong Stadium | |
| Tournament details | |
| Host country | Hong Kong |
| Dates | 1–15 September |
| Teams | 4 |
| Venue | 1 (in 1 host city) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | |
| Runners-up | |
| Third place | |
| Fourth place | |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 6 |
| Goals scored | 27 (4.5 per match) |
| Attendance | 121,000 (20,167 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | (4 goals) |
1960 → | |
An unusual ruling meant that all games were 80 minutes long, with an extra 30 minutes extra time if the game was drawn at full time (although this didn’t happen due to bad light).[3]
Venues
| Hong Kong | |
|---|---|
| Government Stadium | |
| Capacity: 28,000 | |
Qualification

| Team | Qualified as | Qualified on | Previous appearance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hosts | N/A | 0 (debut) | |
| Central Zone winners | 24 May 1956 | 0 (debut) | |
| Eastern Zone winners | 2 September 1956 | 0 (debut) | |
| Western Zone winners (Automatically qualified since other nations withdrew) | 1956 | 0 (debut) |
Squads
Results
All times are Hong Kong Time (UTC+8)
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 6 | +3 | 5 | Champions | |
| 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 5 | +1 | 4 | Runners-up | |
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 7 | −1 | 2 | Third place | |
| 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 9 | −3 | 1 | Fourth place |
| South Korea | 2–2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Kim Ji-sung Sung Nak-woon |
Tang Yee Kit Ko Po Keung |
| Israel | 1–2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Stelmach |
Woo Sang-kwon Sung Nak-woon |
| South Vietnam | 2–2 | |
|---|---|---|
|
|
| Israel | 2–1 | |
|---|---|---|
|
|
| South Korea | 5–3 | |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Winners
| AFC Asian Cup 1956 winners |
|---|
South Korea First title |
Goalscorers
With four goals, Nahum Stelmach is the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 27 goals were scored by 15 different players, with none of them credited as own goal.
4 goals
3 goals
Sung Nak-woon
Woo Sang-kwon
Lê Hữu Đức
2 goals
Au Chi Yin
Yehoshua Glazer
Choi Chung-min
Trần Văn Nhung
1 goal
Chu Wing Wah
Ko Po Keung
Lau Chi Lam
Tang Yee Kit
Kim Ji-sung
Nguyễn Văn Cụt