The 11th Asian Championship was held in the United Arab Emirates for the first time. The matches were held in 3 cities, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.

The defending champions, Japan, Saudi Arabia and South Korea were the main contenders of this tournament, while Iran and Kuwait were considered rank outsiders. However, both of these latter teams scored great results, with Iran easily and handsomely beating the Saudi's by 3 clear goals in the group matches, and then thrashing the South Koreans by 6 goals in the quarter final stages to record one of the most astonishing results of Asian Championship history. Kuwait made the quarter final rounds with slight difficulty, however, they managed to beat the Champions Japan to set-up and intriguing encounter with UAE in the Semi-final.

This tournament was a big triumphs  for the West Asian teams, while the traditional powers of east Asia, South Korea and Japan were beaten in the quarter finals and subsequently some upheaval was carried out on both teams after the disappointing tournament. 

Saudi Arabia, continued performing solidly well in this tournament with lady luck playing good fortunes for the team. In fact, in winning this Championship, Saudi Arabia, managed a record of 50% wins against two draws and a loss to Iran. They won both the semi-finals against Iran and the finals against the host nation UAE with penalty kicks.

This tournament saw the revival of Iran after many years in the doldrums. Although, Iran has traditionally done well in these championships, they have never won it since 1976. The relatively young team coached by an unknown national coach, Mohamed Mayeli-Kohan attracted many admirers and supporters for their attacking style and the scoring power. Ali Daei was the star of the team and the tournament top scorer, however many other players displayed promising talents hence the eyes of the media was focus on the Iranian players. Azizi , Bagheri, Mahdavikia, and Minavand  were amongst the group of players that attracted most attention.

Iran's eventual loss to Saudi Arabia on penalty kicks was a continuation of their bad luck against the Saudi's and was a repeat performance of 1984 series in Singapore (Loss on penalty Kicks) and Qatar 1988 ( loss by a solitary goal in regulation time). The first encounter of the two teams was in Dubai Al Nasr stadium in the group matches. In this match Iran dominated the match with flowing football and great power in attack eventually winning the match 3-0. Iran did not start well, being beaten by a lackluster Iraqi team by a core of 1-2. Their second match against Thailand was a much better one easing through by three goals to one.

After defeating the Saudi's. Iran topped group B to set up an interesting encounter against the powerful Koreans, who were still licking their wounds after the defeat by Kuwait. The match started in with the determined Koreans controlling the initial proceedings. Their skillful and fast moving resulted in an early goal scored in the 11th minute by   Do-Hoon KIM. Iranian defense was under a lot of pressure, but the powerful midfield players, eventually managed to control the runs of the Korean half backs and in a well played moved, Karim Bagheri scored the equalizer in the 34th minute. That goal was soon forgotten, when  Tae-Young SIN scored the 2nd Korean goal three minutes later and the result stood at 2-1 at half time. 

After the interval, the Iranians started wave after wave of attacks complimented by the advances of the Half backs Minavand and Saadavi. The Koreans were defending well, but the pressure by Iran eventually broke their defenses as Khodad Azizi scored the equalizer 12 minutes in the second half. The Iranians felt that this match is well within their grasp, while the fatigue was evident on some Koreans players. The rest of the match belonged top the super Ali Daei, who scored Iran's third goal in 66th minute and followed it by 3 other goals including a penalty kick to record on of the finest ever performances by a single player in the history of theses championships. Whatever the Koreans were doing, they could not There were no