1956 AFC Asian Cup

1956 AFC Asian Cup
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(s)	1 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	South Korea (1st title)
Runners-up	Israel
Third place	Hong Kong
Fourth place	South Vietnam
Tournament statistics
Matches played	6
Goals scored	27 (4.5 per match)
Attendance	136,000 (22,667 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Nahum Stelmach; (4 goals)
	1960 →

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]

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	Hong Kong
	Government Stadium
	Capacity: 28,000

Qualification

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearance
Hong Kong	Hosts	N/A	0 (debut)
South Vietnam	Central Zone winners	24 May 1956	0 (debut)
South Korea	Eastern Zone winners	2 September 1956	0 (debut)
Israel	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	South Korea	3	2	1	0	9	6	+3	5	Champions
2	Israel	3	2	0	1	6	5	+1	4	Runners-up
3	Hong Kong (H)	3	0	2	1	6	7	−1	2	Third place
4	South Vietnam	3	0	1	2	6	9	−3	1	Fourth place

Source: RSSSF
(H) Hosts

1 September 1956

19:00

Hong Kong	2–3	Israel
Au Chi Yin^[zh] 12', 66'		Glazer 37', 76' Stelmach 69'

Government Stadium, Hong kong

Attendance: 30,000

Referee: H.A. Sheppard (England)

6 September 1956