The football tournament began with the first matches of the group stage on 20 November 1982 and ended with the gold medal match on 3 December 1982. Iraq and Kuwait contested the final. Hussein Saeed scored the only goal of the match as Iraq defeated Kuwait to win the gold medal. The bronze medal match was not played after North Korea were suspended by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for an attack on referee Vijit Getkaew during their semi-final. Instead, the bronze medal was awarded to Saudi Arabia.
Background
Football had been part of the Asian Games programme following the debut of the men's competition at the inaugural 1951 Asian Games in India.[1]
Burma, India, South Korea and Taiwan held the record for gold medals having each won the football tournament twice. However, South Korea had never before won the gold medal outright having twice shared the title. North Korea and South Korea were both defending champions after sharing the gold medal following a goalless draw after extra time in the final at the 1978 Asian Games in Thailand.[1]
Format
Originally, 18 teams were set to take part in the competition. They were drawn into four single round robin groups – two of four teams and two of five teams. After two teams withdrew this was changed to four single round robin groups of four teams. The group winners and runners-up would then contest the quarter-finals. The winners of the quarter-finals would contest the semi-finals which would decide which teams contested the gold and bronze medal matches.[2]
The draw for the group stage was held on 6 November 1982.[3] After Oman and North Yemen withdrew, South Yemen were moved to Group D to balance the number of teams in each group.[2]
The semi-finals were marred by controversy. After Kuwait defeated North Korea 3–2 after extra time, North Korean players, officials and competitors from other sports attacked referee Vijit Getkaew. Police and some Thai athletes entered the field of play to intervene and protect Vijit. It later emerged that several North Korean players had attempted to bribe Vijit and his assistant referees ahead of the match.[2]
In the other match, Iraq defeated Saudi Arabia to advance to the gold medal match.[2]
Following the attack on referee Vijit Getkaew, the DPR Korea Football Association was suspended by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for two years. As a result, the bronze medal match was not played and the medal was awarded to Saudi Arabia.[2]
↑অনুপ্রেরণা ৩২ বছর আগের স্মৃতি[Inspiration: Memories from 32 years ago] (in Bengali). Prothom Alo. 14 September 2014. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
