# Football at the 2006 Asian Games

Football at the 2006 Asian Games was held in Doha, Qatar from 18 November to 15 December 2006. The opening match was played 14 days prior to the opening ceremony. In this tournament, some 30 teams played in the men's competition, and 8 teams participated in women's competition.
Turkmenistan, and Yemen withdrew from the competition before playing their first match. The organisation announced a new competition format because of this. Instead of only the group winners of the first round to go through to the second round, now also both runners-up qualified.
Later India also announced their retirement, however they remained in the tournament on a "no cost to government basis". Iran was taken out of competition prior to their first match, due to a suspension by FIFA. However, FIFA lifted the suspension on Iran under-23 team on 26 November 2006 so they returned to the original Group D stage.
Age limit for the men teams is under-23, same as the age limit in football competitions in Olympic Games, while three overage players are allowed among each squad.

## Venues

There are 3 host cities, including 7 stadiums hosted the tournament.
| City | Stadium | Capacity |
| Doha | Al-Ahli Stadium | 20,000 |
| Doha | Al-Arabi Stadium | 13,000 |
| Doha | Qatar SC Stadium | 12,500 |
| Al Rayyan | Al-Gharrafa Stadium | 25,000 |
| Al Rayyan | Al-Rayyan Stadium | 25,000 |
| Al Rayyan | Al-Sadd Stadium | 12,000 |
| Al Wakrah | Al-Wakrah Stadium | 20,000 |

## Schedule

| Q | Qualification | P | Preliminary round | ¼ | Quarterfinals | ½ | Semifinals | B | Bronze medal match | G | Gold medal match |
| Event↓/Date → | 18th Sat | 19th Sun | 20th Mon | 21st Tue | 22nd Wed | 23rd Thu | 24th Fri | 25th Sat | 26th Sun | 27th Mon | 28th Tue | 29th Wed | 30th Thu | 1st Fri | 2nd Sat | 3rd Sun | 4th Mon | 5th Tue | 6th Wed | 7th Thu | 8th Fri | 9th Sat | 10th Sun | 11th Mon | 12th Tue | 13th Wed | 13th Wed | 14th Thu | 15th Fri |
| Men | Q | | | Q | | | Q | | | | P | P | | | P | P | | P | P | | | ¼ | | | ½ | | | B | G |
| Women | | | | | | | | | | | | | P | | | | P | | | P | | | ½ | | | B | G | | |

## Medalists

| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Men details | Qatar Mohamed Saqr Abdulrahman Mesbeh Abdulla Al-Berik Majdi Siddiq Ali Nasser Mesaad Al-Hamad Hussein Yasser Magid Mohamed Ibrahim Al-Ghanim Talal Al-Bloushi Adel Lami Wesam Rizik Waleed Jassem Yusef Ahmed Abdulla Koni Qasem Burhan Sebastián Soria Khalfan Ibrahim Younes Ali Bilal Mohammed | Iraq Mohammed Noor Al-Deen Mohammed Ali Haidar Raheem Mustafa Karim Samer Saeed Ali Mansour Younis Mahmoud Jassim Mohammed Haidar Sabah Ali Rehema Ali Khudhair Alaa Abdul-Zahra Karrar Jassim Salam Shaker Haidar Aboodi Mohammed Gassid Ahmed Abid Ali Muayad Khalid Osama Ali Ahmed Jabbar | Iran Alireza Haghighi Mohsen Arzani Jalal Akbari Jalal Hosseini Pejman Montazeri Behshad Yavarzadeh Milad Nouri Maziar Zare Mehrdad Oladi Arash Borhani Mohammad Gholamin Sheys Rezaei Saeid Chahjouei Hossein Mahini Mohammad Nouri Khosro Heidari Ehsan Khorsandi Adel Kolahkaj Mehrdad Pouladi Hassan Roudbarian |
| Women details | North Korea Phi Un-hui Jang Ok-gyong Om Jong-ran Sonu Kyong-sun Song Jong-sun Ri Un-suk Kim Yong-ae Ri Un-gyong Ho Sun-hui Kim Hye-yong Kim Tan-sil Kong Hye-ok Ri Kum-suk Jong Pok-sim Ri Un-hyang Jon Myong-hui Kim Kyong-hwa Kil Son-hui | Japan Nozomi Yamago Hiromi Isozaki Aya Shimokozuru Akiko Sudo Kyoko Yano Tomoe Sakai Kozue Ando Miyuki Yanagita Eriko Arakawa Homare Sawa Miho Fukumoto Maiko Nakaoka Azusa Iwashimizu Karina Maruyama Aya Miyama Shinobu Ono Yuki Nagasato Mizuho Sakaguchi | China Han Wenxia Liu Huana Li Jie Weng Xinzhi Pu Wei Yuan Fan Bi Yan Yue Min Han Duan Ma Xiaoxu Zhang Tong Wang Dandan Wang Kun Ren Liping Liu Yali Pan Lina Zhang Yanru Qu Feifei |

## Medal table

| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | North Korea (PRK) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 1 | Qatar (QAT) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 | Iraq (IRQ) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 | Japan (JPN) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | China (CHN) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 5 | Iran (IRI) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (6 entries) | Totals (6 entries) | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |

## Draw

The draw ceremony for the team sports was held on 7 September 2006 at Doha.

### Men

Eight teams who did not enter 2002 had to play in Round 1; 22 other teams qualify directly for the tournament proper.
* Turkmenistan and Yemen withdrew from the competition and were replaced by 2nd placed teams from Round 1.

### Women

* Maldives withdrew, following this Thailand moved to Group A to balance the number of teams in each group.

## Final standing
### Men

| Rank | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| | Qatar | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 2 | +11 | 15 |
| | Iraq | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 17 | 3 | +14 | 19 |
| | Iran | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 6 | +4 | 13 |
| 4 | South Korea | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 2 | +7 | 12 |
| 5 | China | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 4 | +4 | 10 |
| 6 | Uzbekistan | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 4 | +3 | 9 |
| 7 | Thailand | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | +1 | 9 |
| 8 | North Korea | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 7 |
| 9 | Bahrain | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 3 | +4 | 6 |
| 10 | Kuwait | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 | +4 | 6 |
| 11 | Japan | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 4 | +1 | 6 |
| 12 | Syria | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 2 | +4 | 9 |
| 13 | Hong Kong | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| 14 | India | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 4 |
| 15 | Vietnam | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 5 | +1 | 3 |
| 16 | Oman | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 3 |
| 17 | Kyrgyzstan | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 7 | +5 | 8 |
| 18 | United Arab Emirates | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | −4 | 1 |
| 19 | Jordan | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 15 | 7 | +8 | 6 |
| 20 | Maldives | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 6 | −4 | 0 |
| 21 | Pakistan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 6 | −4 | 0 |
| 22 | Palestine | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | −6 | 0 |
| 23 | Malaysia | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 10 | −8 | 0 |
| 24 | Bangladesh | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 13 | −11 | 0 |
| 25 | Tajikistan | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 3 | +4 | 5 |
| 26 | Singapore | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 2 |
| 27 | Indonesia | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 11 | −9 | 1 |
| 28 | Macau | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 25 | −24 | 0 |

### Women

| Rank | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| | North Korea | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 2 | +14 | 13 |
| | Japan | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 21 | 1 | +20 | 13 |
| | China | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 22 | 4 | +18 | 9 |
| 4 | South Korea | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 10 | −3 | 6 |
| 5 | Chinese Taipei | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 7 | −4 | 3 |
| 6 | Thailand | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 11 | −6 | 3 |
| 7 | Vietnam | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 11 | −9 | 0 |
| 8 | Jordan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 30 | −30 | 0 |

## Impact on Qatar

Scholars suggest that the 2006 Asian Games had long-term consequences for Qatar by boosting its tourist economy, aiding in economic diversification away from oil, and encouraging infrastructural development, while anticipating Qatar's bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.