| Tourney Name: | AFC Cup |
| Year: | 2013 |
| Num Teams: | 34 |
| Associations: | 17 |
| Champion Other: | Al-Kuwait |
| Count: | 3 |
| Second Other: | Al-Qadsia |
| Matches: | 118 |
| Goals: | 409 |
| Top Scorer: |  Issam Jemâa (16 goals) |
| Player: | Bader Al-Mutawa |
| Prevseason: | 2012 |
| Nextseason: | 2014 |
The 2013 AFC Cup was the tenth edition of the AFC Cup, a football competition organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for clubs from "developing countries" in Asia.[1]
In an all-Kuwait final, defending champions Al-Kuwait defeated Al-Qadsia 2–0 to win their third AFC Cup title in five years, becoming the first team to win the AFC Cup three times.[2] Both finalists also qualified for the 2014 AFC Champions League.
The AFC laid out the procedure for deciding the participating associations and the allocation of slots, with the final decision to be made by the AFC in November 2012.[3] The following changes to the list of participating associations may be made from the 2012 AFC Cup if the AFC approved the following applications made by any association:
The following changes in the participating associations were made compared to the previous year:
Each participating association was given two entries:
| +West Asia Zone | |||
| Member Association | Slots | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| width=15% | Group stage | width=15% | Play-off |
 Bahrain | 2 | 0 | |
 Iraq | 2 | 0 | |
 Jordan | 2 | 0 | |
| Kuwait | 2 | 0 | |
| Lebanon | 2 | 0 | |
| Oman | 2 | 0 | |
 Syria | 1 | 1 | |
 Tajikistan | 1 | 1 | |
 Yemen | 1 | 1 | |
| Total | 15 | 3 | |
| +East Asia Zone | |||
| Member Association | Slots | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| width=15% | Group stage | width=15% | Play-off |
 Hong Kong | 2 | 0 | |
 India | 2 | 0 | |
 Indonesia | 2 | 0 | |
| Malaysia | 2 | 0 | |
 Maldives | 2 | 0 | |
| Myanmar | 2 | 0 | |
| Singapore | 2 | 0 | |
| Vietnam | 2 | 0 | |
| Total | 16 | 0 | |
The following teams entered the competition.
| +East Asia Zone | ||||
| Team | Qualifying method | App | Last App | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group stage direct entrants (Groups E–H) | ||||
| Kitchee | 2011–12 Hong Kong First Division League champions | 3rd | 2012 | |
| Sunray Cave JC Sun Hei | 2011–12 Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield winners | 4th | 2007 | |
| East Bengal | 2011–12 I-League runners-up 2012 Indian Federation Cup winners | 7th | 2012 | |
| Churchill Brothers | 2011–12 I-League 3rd place | 2nd | 2010 | |
| Semen Padang | 2011–12 Indonesian Premier League champions | 1st | none | |
| Persibo Bojonegoro | 2012 Piala Indonesia winners | 1st | none | |
| Kelantan | 2012 Malaysia Super League champions and 2012 Malaysia FA Cup winners | 2nd | 2012 | |
| Selangor | 2012 Malaysia Super League 3rd place | 3rd | 2010 | |
| New Radiant | 2012 Dhivehi League champions | 5th | 2008 | |
| Maziya | 2012 Maldives FA Cup winners | 1st | none | |
| Yangon United | 2012 Myanmar National League champions | 2nd | 2012 | |
| Ayeyawady United | 2012 MFF Cup winners | 2nd | 2012 | |
| Tampines Rovers | 2012 S.League champions | 6th | 2012 | |
| Warriors | 2012 Singapore Cup winners | 3rd | 2008 | |
| SHB Đà Nẵng | 2012 V-League champions | 2nd | 2010 | |
| Sài Gòn Xuân Thành | 2012 Vietnamese Cup winners | 1st | none | |
Al-Muharraq (Bahrain) withdrew after the draw was held. As a result, Regar-TadAZ (Tajikistan), which were initially to enter the qualifying play-off, instead directly entered the group stage, and only two teams participated in the qualifying play-off.
The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws held at AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).[5]
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying play-off | Round 1 | 6 December 2012 | 9 February 2013 | |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 5–6 March 2013 | ||
| Matchday 2 | 12–13 March 2013 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 2–3 April 2013 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 9–10 April 2013 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 23–24 April 2013 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 30 April–1 May 2013 | |||
| Knock-out stage | Round of 16 | 14–15 May 2013 | ||
| Quarter-finals | 20 June 2013 | 17 September 2013 | 24 September 2013 | |
| Semi-finals | 1 October 2013 | 22 October 2013 | ||
| Final | 2 November 2013 | |||
For 2013, the round of 16 continued to be played as a single match instead of over two legs on a home-and-away basis as originally planned.[6]
See main article: 2013 AFC Cup qualifying play-off.
The draw for the qualifying play-off was held on 6 December 2012.[7] Each tie was played as a single match, with extra time and penalty shoot-out used to decide the winner if necessary. The winner advanced to the group stage to join the 31 automatic qualifiers.[1]
Due to the withdrawal of Al-Muharraq after the draw was held, Regar-TadAZ, which were initially drawn to play the winner between Al-Wahda and Al-Ahli Taizz for a place in the group stage, were directly entered into Group A, while the winner between Al-Wahda and Al-Ahli Taizz would be entered into Group B to replace Al-Muharraq.[8]
|}
See main article: 2013 AFC Cup group stage.
The draw for the group stage was held on 6 December 2012.[7] The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group. Each group was played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the round of 16.
See main article: 2013 AFC Cup knock-out stage.
In the knock-out stage, the 16 teams played a single-elimination tournament. In the quarter-finals and semi-finals, each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis, while in the round of 16 and final, each tie was played as a single match. The away goals rule (for two-legged ties), extra time (away goals do not apply in extra time) and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary.[1]
In the round of 16, the winners of one group played the runners-up of another group in the same zone, with the group winners hosting the match.[1]
|-!colspan=3|West Asia Zone|-!colspan=3|East Asia Zone|}
The draw for the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final (to decide the host team) was held on 20 June 2013.[9] In this draw, teams from different zones could play each other, and the "country protection" rule was applied: if there are two teams from the same association, they may not play each other in the quarter-finals.
|}
|}
See main article: 2013 AFC Cup Final.
| Award | Player | Team | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most Valuable Player[10] | Bader Al-Mutawa | Al-Qadsia | |
| Top Goalscorer[11] | Issam Jemâa | Al-Kuwait< | -- |
| Fair Play Award | — | ?--> |
| Rank | Player | Team | Total | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Issam Jemâa | Al-Kuwait | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 16 | |||||
| 2 |  Jordi Tarrés | Kitchee | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 12 | ||||
| 3 |  Edward Wilson | Semen Padang | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 10 | |||||
| 4 | Bader Al-Mutawa | Al-Qadsia | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | ||||||
| Ali Ashfaq | New Radiant | 5 | 3 | 1 | 9 | ||||||||||
 Adama Koné | Yangon United | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 9 | |||||||
| 7 | Ahmad Al Douni | Al-Riffa (GS+R16) Al-Shorta (QF) | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |||||||
| Amjad Radhi | Erbil | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | ||||||||
 Rogerinho | Al-Kuwait | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||||||
| 10 |  Chidi Edeh | East Bengal | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | ||||||||
 Gastón Merlo | SHB Đà Nẵng | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 6 | |||||||||
| Mohamed Umair | New Radiant | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 |