The 2008 WAFF Championship was the fifth West Asian Football Federation Championship, an international tournament for West Asian countries and territories. It was hosted by Iran.

Teams

4 members from 6 members of WAFF participated in this tournament. Oman and Qatar, which were not members of WAFF, also participated as guests.

CountryFIFA ranking (2 July 2008)AppearancePrevious best performance
Iran (hosts)375thChampions (2000, 2004, 2007)
Jordan1145thRunners-up (2002)
Oman (invitee)861stNone
Palestine1725thGroup stage (2000, 2002, 2004, 2007)
Qatar (invitee)801stNone
Syria1025thRunners-up (2000, 2004)

Note: (FIFA rankings are in brackets)

  • Bahrain (72) Were invited as guests but withdrew after being told that they could not play with their Olympic team.
  • Iraq (58) Withdrew from the tournament on 26 June 2008 due to the team being disbanded.
  • Lebanon (150) the initial hosts of this tournament, would not participate in this edition.[why?]

Draw

The draw for the competition was made on 1 July 2008 in Amman, Jordan.

Venues

TehranTehran
Azadi StadiumTakhti Stadium
Capacity: 100,000Capacity: 30,122

Group stage

Group A

TeamPldWDLGFGAGDPts
Iran (H)220091+86
Qatar210126−43
Palestine200204−40
Iran3–0Palestine
K. Rahmati 29' (pen.) Rezaei 40' Rafkhaei 86'
Palestine0–1Qatar
F. Al Shammari 72'
Qatar1–6Iran
Abdullah 52'Meydavoudi 10', 90' Alenemeh 33' Aghily 49' (pen.) Hajsafi 61' Rafkhaei 80'

Group B

TeamPldWDLGFGAGDPts
Jordan211031+24
Syria211021+14
Oman200225−30
Syria0–0Jordan
Oman1–2Syria
Saleh 47'Ibrahim 11' Abadi 71'
Jordan3–1Oman
Abdel-Fattah 6' Al-Nawateer 71', 84'Katkoot 26' (pen.)

Knockout phase

Semi-finals

Iran2–0Syria
K. Rahmati 6' (pen.) Rezaei 52'
Jordan3–0Qatar
Al-Sheikh 45' Amer Deeb 71' Al-Saify 90'

Final

Iran2–1Jordan
Aghily 21' (pen.) K. Rahmati 85'Amer Deeb 82'

Champions

2008 WAFF Championship winners
Iran Fourth title

External links