EXPLORE THE ASIAN GAME
Football through an Asian lens.
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ABOUT THE ASIAN GAME
Football through an Asian lens
Independent football journalism, audio and video exploring the people, places, cultures and forces shaping the game across Asia.
WHY WE EXIST
A different way of seeing the game.
When The Asian Game launched in 2017, it was built on a simple belief: Asian football deserved to be covered with greater depth, curiosity and understanding.
Not simply reported through results, transfers and reaction, but explored through the people, cultures, histories and forces that shape the game across the continent.
Asia is not one football market, one culture or one story. The game moves differently from country to country, shaped by dramatically different histories, ambitions and identities. Understanding Asian football means understanding those differences.
For almost a decade, The Asian Game has tried to do exactly that — travelling, reporting, listening and talking to the people inside the game.
The platform has evolved. The ambition has grown. But that founding belief remains the same.
ON LOCATION · FIFA WORLD CUP 2022 · DOHA, QATAR
THE ASIAN LENS
One continent. Countless ways of seeing the game.
Asia is too large, too diverse and too complex to understand through a single perspective. Our lens looks beyond the result to the people, places, cultures and forces that give football its meaning.
DOHA, QATAR
SAITAMA, JAPAN
SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA
01
PEOPLE
The players, coaches, supporters and communities who give the game its meaning.
02
PLACE
How geography, cities, borders and local identity shape football across the continent.
03
CULTURE
The traditions, rituals and social forces that make Asian football distinct.
04
POWER
The institutions, money, politics and ambition changing who controls the game.
05
FUTURE
The ideas, generations and shifts that will define what Asian football becomes next.
OUR JOURNEY
From one conversation to a continental platform
The Asian Game began in 2017 as a podcast built around a simple idea: Asian football deserved deeper conversation. What followed was a journey across tournaments, countries and formats — from microphones in stadium concourses to reporting from World Cups and Asian Cups.
2017
THE BEGINNING
The conversation begins.
The Asian Game Podcast launches in September 2017, beginning a conversation about Asian football that would eventually grow far beyond audio.
2019
A PLATFORM TAKES SHAPE
Beyond the microphone.
On-ground coverage of the AFC Asian Cup is followed by the launch of The Asian Game website and a broader editorial ambition.
2022
ON THE WORLD STAGE
Qatar changes the scale.
A partnership with SMC helps take TAG to the FIFA World Cup, expanding its work across reporting, audio, interviews, video and features.
2023
THE WOMEN’S WORLD CUP
A wider view of the game.
TAG reports from the FIFA Women’s World Cup across Australia and New Zealand, continuing its on-ground partnership with SMC.
2024
BACK TO QATAR
Asia takes centre stage.
The AFC Asian Cup brings another major on-location campaign across editorial, audio, interviews and video.
2025
THE PLATFORM EXPANDS
New voices. New formats.
From Dreams To Goals launches alongside major on-ground coverage of the AFC Champions League Elite Finals and Asian Qualifiers.
2026
A NEW ERA
The lens comes into focus.
The Asian Game enters its next chapter with a new identity, new platform and a clearer purpose.
DRAG TO EXPLORE →
2017-2026
It was never a finished story.
It was the foundation.
The next chapter begins with everything those years taught us about the game, the continent and the stories still waiting to be told.
THE GAME, UP CLOSE
Not from a distance.
To understand Asian football, you have to be where it happens — in stadiums and mixed zones, on streets and training grounds, with the supporters, players and people who give the game its meaning.
ON LOCATION
SAITAMA, JAPAN
ON LOCATION
PATHUM THANI, THAILAND
ON LOCATION
DOHA, QATAR
Saitama. Bangkok. Hanoi. Doha. Sydney. Jeddah. And everywhere the game takes us next.
WHAT WE MAKE
Stories told in words, sound and vision.
The Asian Game tells the story of Asian football across formats — through deeply reported editorial, conversations that bring people closer to the game, and visual storytelling from across the continent.
01
EDITORIAL
Journalism that goes beyond the result.
Features, analysis, interviews and reporting that explore the people, places and forces shaping football across Asia.
02
AUDIO
Conversations from inside the Asian game.
Podcasts built around insight, perspective and the voices of players, coaches, journalists and people shaping football across the continent.
03
VISION
Asia’s game, seen up close.
Original video, interviews and on-location storytelling that capture the atmosphere, personalities and places behind the game.
A DECADE OF CONVERSATIONS
Listening to the people who shape the game.
For almost a decade, The Asian Game has listened to the players, coaches, administrators, writers and voices who understand Asian football from the inside. From long-form conversations to exchanges in mixed zones across the continent, every voice adds another perspective.
FEATURE CONVERSATIONS
Extended interviews and conversations with voices from across Asian football.
SAUDI FOOTBALL
Sami Al-Jaber
A defining figure of Saudi football, reflecting on a career spanning World Cups, Al Hilal and a game entering a period of profound change.
JAPAN ABROAD
Shinji Okazaki
One of Japan’s defining modern forwards on the experience, mentality and journey that carried him from the J.League to a Premier League title.
THE WOMEN’S GAME
Caitlin Foord
A leading voice from a generation that has transformed the profile, ambition and possibilities of women’s football across Asia.
BEYOND THE POWERHOUSES
Rohit Chand
A conversation that reflects TAG’s wider purpose: treating every part of Asian football as worthy of attention, curiosity and serious coverage.
FROM THE ARCHIVE
More voices from a decade spent listening across the breadth of Asian football.
Lee Young-pyo
Eiji Kawashima
Stephanie Al-Naber
Cho So-hyun
Sandesh Jhingan
Abbosbek Fayzullaev
Neil Etheridge
Kevin Muscat
Philippe Troussier
Yousef Al-Serkal
James Montague
FROM THE MIXED ZONE
Voices from the game.
Players, coaches and figures encountered on the ground across World Cups, Asian Cups and continental competitions.
Ange Postecoglou
Sam Kerr
Son Heung-min
Takefusa Kubo
Ali Daei
Cha Du-ri
Mat Ryan
Mousa Al-Tamari
Ivan Toney
Tsuneyasu Miyamoto
Hundreds of conversations. One continuing attempt to understand the game more deeply.
ACROSS ASIA
Reporting from where Asian football lives.
From Tokyo to Doha, Bangkok to Sydney, The Asian Game has reported from the places where Asian football is played, watched and felt.
26 cities • 14 countries
…and wherever the game takes us next.
THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE LENS
A small team. A wide view of the game.
The Asian Game is shaped by journalists and contributors with decades of experience covering football across Asia — from stadiums and mixed zones to long-form interviews and analysis.
CO-FOUNDING EDITOR
Paul Williams
Based in Adelaide, Paul Williams has been covering Asian football for more than 15 years, and has covered multiple major tournaments including the FIFA World Cup, AFC Asian Cup, FIFA Women’s World Cup and AFC Women’s Asian Cup, and has also featured on CNN, Al Jazeera English and BBC discussing Asian football.
CO-FOUNDER
Scott McIntyre
Scott McIntyre is a football journalist based in Tokyo who, in addition to reporting on the game, enjoys looking at the human element of the world’s most popular sport. He’s covered multiple FIFA World Cups, AFC Asian Cups and numerous other club and national tournaments right across the planet and has travelled extensively across Asia for the past two decades, from Iraq and Palestine to Guam and Southeast Asia.
SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
Michael Church
Michael Church first started writing about football in Asia when he moved to Hong Kong in 1995 and he has covered every AFC Asian Cup since 1996 and every FIFA World Cup since the finals were held in France in 1998. He has spent more time than is healthy sitting on aeroplanes and loitering in hotel lobbies.
SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
Martin Lowe
Martin Lowe is a freelance football writer, having covered Asian football for over a decade. He has appeared on the BBC, Al Jazeera English and The Mirror, covering some of the biggest stories and developments in Asian football. He has been a senior contributor at The Asian Game website since its launch in 2019.
THE ARCHIVE
Almost a decade of Asian football, documented.
From podcasts and long-form features to tournament reporting and conversations across the continent, The Asian Game has built an archive reflecting the breadth and evolution of Asian football since 2017.
337
PODCAST EPISODES
13,655
MINUTES OF AUDIO
458
ARTICLES PUBLISHED
14
MAJOR TOURNAMENTS COVERED
44/47
AFC MEMBER ASSOCIATIONS REPORTED ON
2017 →
AND STILL GOING
THE NEXT CHAPTER
Asian football has never needed to be viewed through somebody else’s lens.
For almost a decade, The Asian Game has tried to understand the game on its own terms — through its people, places, cultures, ambitions and contradictions.
The platforms may change. The competitions will evolve. New generations will emerge and new stories will demand to be told.
But the purpose remains the same.