Association football tournaments were held at the East Asian Games from its first edition in 1999 until the last Games in 2013. Participating players had to be under 23 years of age. Men's football was featured at every event while women's football was included only in 2013.
| Event | Years | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men's event | X | X | X | X | X | X | 6 | |
| Women's event | O | O | O | O | O | X | 1 |
| Nation | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | Years | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | - | - | Y[1] | - | - | - | 1 | ||||||
| 3 | 3 | - | bgcolor=gold | 1 | Y | Y | 5 | ||||||
| - | - | - | Y | - | - | 1 | |||||||
| - | Y | Y | - | - | - | 2 | |||||||
| - | - | - | Y | bgcolor=gold | 1 | 4 | 3 | ||||||
| 4 | bgcolor=silver | 2 | bgcolor=gold | 1 | 3 | bgcolor=silver | 2 | 3 | 6 | ||||
| 2 | - | 4 | 3 | - | - | - | 2 | ||||||
| bgcolor=silver | 2 | - | - | bgcolor=silver | 2 | 4 | bgcolor=gold | 1 | 4 | ||||
| bgcolor=gold | 1 | bgcolor=gold | 1 | bgcolor=silver | 2 | 4 | 3 | bgcolor=silver | 2 | 6 | |||
| Y | - | Y | Y | Y | - | 4 | |||||||
| Y | Y | Y | - | - | - | 3 | |||||||
| Total nations | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 |
| Year | Host | Final | Third Place Match | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | Score | Runner-up | 3rd Place | Score | 4th Place | |||
| 1993 Details |  Shanghai | [2] | [3] | |||||
| 1997 Details |  Busan | |||||||
| 2001 Details |  Osaka | 2–1 | 4–1 | |||||
| 2005 Details |  Macau | 1–0 | 4–1 | |||||
| 2009 Details |  Hong Kong | 1–1 aet (4–2) pen | 1–1 aet (4–2) pen | |||||
| 2013 Details | Tianjin | |||||||
| Nation | width=25 | Years | |
|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor=silver | 2 | 1 | |
| 4 | 1 | ||
| 3 | 1 | ||
| bgcolor=gold | 1 | 1 | |
| Total nations | 4 |