China to play host of the AFC Asian Cup 2023
On Tuesday, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced that China will stage the 2023 Asian Cup after all the other countries who submitted bids to host the tournament backed out. This will be the second time that China will host the continental event having previously played host in 2004.
The 2019 AFC Asian Cup ended with Qatar claiming their maiden win in the quadrennial event by beating Japan by a scoreline of 3-1 in the final in the UAE. The defending champions Australia were eliminated by the hosts at the quarter-final stages, who subsequently lost to the eventual champions in the semi-finals.
In a recent development, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) revealed that China will stage the 2023 Asian Cup after all the other countries in the running dropped their bids.
"It's great for China, a great honour for China to be hosts of the 2023 Asian Cup. We are ready and confident of staging a successful tournament," Chinese FIFA Council member Du Zhaocai said at the AFC Extraordinary Congress in Paris reported AFP.
This will be the second occasion that China has hosted the quadrennial continental tournament, after the 2004 edition when they finished runners-up to Japan. Last month, South Korea bowed out of the race to host the competition while the likes of Thailand and Indonesia had also previously expressed interest in hosting the 2023 event, but dropped out eventually.
