Four nations bid to host 2023 Asian Cup after China pulls out

July 18 - South Korea, Indonesia, Qatar and Australia have all expressed interest in hosting the 2023 Asian Cup, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has confirmed. China has withdrawn as host due to its zero Covid-19 policy.

The four nations will have until the end of August to submit bid documents, with the AFC due to announce a new host on October 17.

"In accordance with the bidding process, the bidding regulations were circulated to MAs on June 17, 2022, and the deadline for bidding MAs to submit bidding documents is set for August 31, 2022," the AFC said.< /p>

The Chinese were due to host next year's continental championship but pulled out due to the government's coronavirus policies. The decision has left the AFC scrambling to find a suitable host for its flagship tournament, which was expanded to 24 teams for the first time in 2019. The schedule does not make the host decision any easier, with little time to the host country to ensure the tournament. operations.

Australia are in favor of hosting the tournament in early 2024 as they co-host the Women's World Cup next summer. The Aussies have also bid for the 2026 Women's Asian Cup. Moving the tournament to 2024, however, will leave a substantial gap in the schedule.

Having hosted the finals in 1988 and 2011, Qatar is the host of this year's World Cup. The Qataris have all the necessary infrastructure to host the competition, but staging the Asian Cup in the West Zone could be tricky after the UAE hosted the last final and Saudi Arabia and Qatar are strong contenders in the bid race for the 2027 competition.

Similarly there is the question of when the tournament would be played due to the extreme heat of the Qatari summer - the reason why the 2022 World Cup has been moved from July to its November slot/ December this year.

That leaves South Korea and Indonesia.

The Indonesians were part of the 2007 event when they hosted the tournament alongside Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. South Korea co-hosted the 2002 World Cup, but hasn't hosted a major tournament since. They were hosts in 1960 when they won the competition on home soil.

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