1 What does Palestine forward Mahmoud Eid have in common with Zlatan Ibrahimovic? He is a Sweden youth international.
2 Just like Robin Van Persie, Iran striker Reza Ghoochannejhad is a Netherlands youth international.
3 The Asian Cup is older than the European Championship by four years, with the first edition held in 1956.
4 This year is the last time we'll see the cup in a 16-team format with the 2019 edition to be expanded to 24 teams.
5 Saudi Arabia sacked three different coaches during the 2011 Asian Cup.
6 Only four nations have an entirely domestically-based squad: Saudi Arabia, China, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
7 Football will be a compulsory subject for high school students in China from 2016.
8 Qatar has lost only one match in 2014 – 2-0 to Peru.
9 Qatar and its Aspire Zone Foundation owns Ligue 1 giant Paris Saint-Germain and Belgian Second Division club K.A.S Eupen, which the nation uses to blood its academy graduates.
10 Iraq's captain, Younis Mahmoud, is the only player at the tournament to be playing for his national team despite retiring from club football.
11 Mahmoud has a tattoo of a map of Iraq on his shoulder.
12 Slovenia-raised Palestine midfielder Jaka Ihbeisheh connected with his father through Facebook having not seen him for 18 years. Three years later, he's representing his dad's nation at the Asian Cup.
13 Oman goalkeeper and captain Ali Al-Habsi's first job was as a firefighter at his nation's Seeb International Airport.
14 Star Kuwait attacker Fahad Al Enezi was left out of the touring party, reportedly because of issues relating to his involvement with the Bedouin minority and subsequent inability to secure a passport.
15 Massimo Luongo (Indonesian grandfather) and Jason Davidson (Japanese mother) are the only two players with an Asian background in the Socceroos squad.
16 In fact, Luongo's grandfather was an Indonesian sultan.
17 Korea Republic captain Ki Sung-Yueng went to high school in Brisbane at John Paul College, was known as 'David', and helped the school to win the Bill Turner Cup. The Swansea City star was once offered a contract at Queensland Roar, but opted to return to his native country before embarking on a career in the English Premier League.
18 United Arab Emirates captain Omar Abdulrahman was born and raised in Saudi Arabia.
19 Germany-based Japan goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima is fluent in English and Italian, as well as speaking French, Dutch, German and Portuguese along with his native Japanese. He has helped develop a language program to help Japanese players in foreign countries.
20 DPR Korea didn't pick arguably its best player, Chong Tae-Se – nicknamed 'the people's Rooney' – allegedly because he plays his club football in Korea Republic with Suwong Bluewings.
21 More than half (12) of Jordan's 23-man squad is of Palestinian descent. It will take on Palestine in the group stage.
22 The Group D match between Japan and Jordan sees the two teams who met in controversial circumstances in the 2004 quarter-final come together again. That day, Jordan was 2-0 up in the penalty shootout after the match finished 1-1. Japan captain Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, among others, marched onto the field and demanded the shootout be conducted at the opposite end. Samurai Blue recovered to win 4-3 and take out the tournament, which sparked a riot in the host nation and beaten finalist, China.
23 There is no prize money from the AFC for the winning nation.
24 The leader of the Iraq supporters group was in tears after being denied a visa to travel to Australia.
25 China defender Zhang Linpeng was one of his nation's then Under-23 players involved in a mass brawl with Queens Park Rangers players during a warm-up match for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
26 Linpeng was also given a red card during Guangzhou Evergrande's 1-0 loss to Western Sydney Wanderers in its AFC Champions League quarter-final first leg.
27 Back-up Palestine goalkeeper, Tufiq Ali, stands an imposing 6 feet 5 inches.
28 Nine of 16 nations have changed coach in the past six months: Japan, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Bahrain, DPR Korea, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Korea Republic.
29 Kuwait is the first Arab nation, along with Iraq, to reach the finals and the first to both host and win the tournament.
30 Before it joined UEFA, Israel was runner-up in the first two editions of the tournament .
31 Australia is one of just seven nations with a home-grown coach. The others are Palestine, Iraq, Bahrain, UAE, DPR Korea and Uzbekistan.
32 Korea Republic has the largest number of foreign-based players in its squad, with 18. The Socceroos are next with 16.
