West Asian Football Federation

West Asian Football Federation
	Member countries
Formation	15 May 2001; 25 years ago
Type	Sports organization
Headquarters	Amman, Jordan
Members	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	WAFF affiliation	IOC member
BHR	Bahrain	Men's U23 U20 U17 F BS Women's U20 U17	1957	1968	2010	Yes
IRQ	Iraq	Men's U23 U20 U17 F BS Women's U20 U17	1948	1950	2001	Yes
JOR	Jordan	Men's U23 U20 U17 F BS Women's U20 U17	1949	1956	2001	Yes
KUW	Kuwait	Men's U23 U20 U17 F BS Women's U20 U17	1952	1964	2010	Yes
LBN	Lebanon	Men's U23 U20 U17 F BS Women's U20 U17	1933	1936	2001	Yes
OMA	Oman	Men's U23 U20 U17 F BS Women's U20 U17	1978	1978	2010	Yes
PLE	Palestine	Men's U23 U20 U17 F BS Women's U20 U17	1998	1998	2001	Yes
QAT	Qatar	Men's U23 U20 U17 F BS Women's U20 U17	1960	1963	2009	Yes
KSA	Saudi Arabia	Men's U23 U20 U17 F BS Women's U20 U17	1956	1956	2010	Yes
SYR	Syria	Men's U23 U20 U17 F BS Women's U20 U17	1936	1937	2001	Yes
UAE	United Arab Emirates	Men's U23 U20 U17 F BS Women's U20 U17	1971	1974	2009	Yes
YEM	Yemen	Men's U23 U20 U17 F BS Women's U20 U17	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	2026
WAFF U-23 Championship	2025	Oman	1st	Jordan	TBD
WAFF U-19 Championship	2024	Saudi Arabia	1st	United Arab Emirates	2026
WAFF U-17 Championship	2025	Saudi Arabia	2nd	Lebanon	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	2025	Jordan	7th	Palestine	TBD
WAFF U-20 Girls Championship	2025	Palestine	1st	Jordan	TBD
WAFF U-17 Girls Championship	2026	Syria	1st	Lebanon	TBD
WAFF U-14 Girls Championship	2025	Jordan		Lebanon	TBD
WAFF Futsal Women's Championship	2022	Iraq	1st	Saudi Arabia	TBD
Women's club teams
WAFF Women's Clubs Championship	2026	Al-Nassr	1st	Al-Hilal	TBD

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 1 April 2026

WAFF	AFC	FIFA	Country	Points	+/−
1	6	55	Qatar	1454.96	1
2	7	57	Iraq	1447.14	1
3	8	61	Saudi Arabia	1421.43
4	9	63	Jordan	1391.45	1
5	10	68	United Arab Emirates	1370.47
6	11	79	Oman	1313.46	1
7	12	84	Syria	1288.56
8	13	91	Bahrain	1258.53	1
9	16	95	Palestine	1244.73
10	20	108	Lebanon	1187.96	1
11	23	134	Kuwait	1105.10	1
12	29	149	Yemen	1049.49

Leading Men's team:

Women's national football team

As of 21 April 2026

FIFA Women's Rankings (as of 16 June 2026)^[5]
WAFF*	FIFA	±	National Team	Points
1	76		Jordan	1299.21
2	116	8	Bahrain	1146.97
3	124	1	United Arab Emirates	1126.67
4	129		Palestine	1111.4
5	130		Lebanon	1100.95
6	157	3	Saudi Arabia	971.11
7	162	1	Syria	931.42
8	166		Iraq	910.49
*Local rankings based on FIFA ranking points

Leading Women's team:

Men's national futsal team

FIFA Futsal Rankings (as of 8 May 2026)^[6]
WAFF*	FIFA	±	National Team	Points
1	24	13	Iraq	1186.9
2	41	4	Saudi Arabia	1083.52
3	43	3	Kuwait	1080.32
4	72	18	Lebanon	986.28
5	75	1	Bahrain	977.65
6	90	1	Qatar	945.32
7	92	1	Oman	940.88
8	100	1	United Arab Emirates	906.64
9	122	2	Palestine	838.37
*Local rankings based on FIFA ranking points

Women's national futsal team

FIFA Futsal Women's Rankings (as of 8 May 2026)^[7]
WAFF*	FIFA	±	National Team	Points
1	31	1	Palestine	959.82
2	38	3	Bahrain	937.24
3	43	3	Lebanon	925.89
4	46		Saudi Arabia	915.23
5	51	2	Iraq	894.16
6	53	1	United Arab Emirates	885.35
7	63	1	Oman	848.46
8	78		Kuwait	775.6
*Local rankings based on FIFA ranking points

Men's national beach soccer team

AFF Men's National Beach Soccer Team Ranking by BSWW
Update: 19 January 2026

WAFF	World	Country	Points
1	9	United Arab Emirates	1371.75
2	11	Oman	1308.5
3	21	Saudi Arabia	689.25
4	43	Bahrain	254.25
5	45	Lebanon	247.25
6	48	Kuwait	216.25
7	71	Palestine	89.75
8	74	Iraq	87

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]

Logo

Logo of WAFF (before 2023)
Logo of WAFF (since 2023)

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. Archived from the original on 2013-11-11. 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". 16 June 2026. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
↑ "The FIFA Futsal Men's World Ranking". 8 May 2026. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
↑ "The FIFA Futsal Women's World Ranking". FIFA. 8 May 2026. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
↑ "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. Archived from the original on 2013-11-11. 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". 16 June 2026. Retrieved 16 June 2026.

[FIFA_Futsal_World_Rankings-7] "The FIFA Futsal Men's World Ranking". 8 May 2026. Retrieved 8 May 2026.

[FIFA_Futsal_Women's_World_Rankings-8] "The FIFA Futsal Women's World Ranking". FIFA. 8 May 2026. Retrieved 8 May 2026.

[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