Also
abbreviation for
Asian Football Confederation.
The AFC is responsible for Asian World Cup qualifying and other regional soccer (football to non-Americans) tournaments (such as the Asian Cup and Asian Champions League).
For AFC qualifying for the 2002 World Cup (which is to be held in Japan and South Korea; both of those nations automatically qualify as the hosts), there are 10 initial groups of 3-4 teams (9 groups of 4; 1 group of 3). In the groups of 4, each team plays every other team twice. In the group of 3, each team plays the others once.
The 10 group winners advance to the next round, where they are split into two groups of 5. Within each group, each team will play the other teams twice (for a total of 8 games for each team). The two group winners will qualify for the World Cup. The two second-place teams face each other in a playoff, and the winner of THAT will have ANOTHER playoff against a European group runner-up, for a spot in the World Cup. (Yes, it's a bit confusing...)