Original title: AFC officials announced that China will host the 2023 Asian Cup. At the AFC special representative conference held in Paris, AFC announced that China will host the 18th Asian Cup in 2023. This will be China's hosting of the Asian Cup again after a lapse of 19 years. In 2004, the national football team reached the finals and won the runner up. It is worth mentioning that in the history of the Asian Cup, the national football team has never touched the championship trophy. Can it be achieved in 2023?
China holds 2023 Asian Cup
The bid for the 2023 Asian Cup was full of twists and turns
In fact, since 2016, the bid for the 2023 Asian Cup has been launched. Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea and China have successively expressed their willingness to bid to AFC. However, after China and South Korea intended to host the 2023 Asian Cup, Indonesia and Thailand chose to withdraw one after another.
However, with only China and South Korea remaining to bid, AFC has repeatedly postponed the date of announcing the right to host the games. After the overall "defeat" of the AFC general election conference, the Korean Football Association soon announced that it would give up its bid for the 2023 Asian Cup and focus its work on the bid for the 2023 women's World Cup. China became the only country to bid for the 2023 Asian Cup.
However, even if only China was left to bid, according to the procedures, it was finally announced at today's AFC special representative conference that the right to host the 2023 Asian cup fell to China.
China hosted the Asian Cup for the second time in its history and held it again 19 years later
In 2004, China won the Asian Cup for the first time. With the momentum of reaching the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, the national football team won the runner up of the Asian Cup at home. Of course, if it were not for the misjudgment in the final, the national football team might have reached the top of Asia for the first time in history.
In 2023, China will host the Asian Cup for the second time, and the Asian Cup will fall on China again after 19 years. AFC has previously stated in its official statement that it hopes that China will host a successful Asian Cup. For China, which has held many comprehensive large-scale games and successfully held the Asian Cup in 2004, hosting it again will be a piece of cake. The last large-scale intercontinental football event held in China was the U-23 Asian Cup in early 2018.
The number of Asian Cup champions is zero, and the host advantage helps make a breakthrough?
In the history of the Asian Cup, Japan won the title four times and became the most successful team, Saudi Arabia and Iran won the title three times each, South Korea won the title two times, and Qatar became the new king of Asia in the 2019 UAE Asian Cup. The national football team has won the second place twice in the history of the Asian Cup. In addition to 2004, it also reached the finals in 1984.
New Asian Cup trophy
Four years later, China hosted the Asian Cup again. With the advantages of the host country and the current heavy policies, whether the national football team can take the east wind to achieve the "zero breakthrough" of the Asian Cup champion is also one of the reveries left to the outside world by China hosting the Asian Cup again.
The Asian Cup is the oldest intercontinental football match besides the American Cup, even four years earlier than the European Cup. The Asian Cup in 2023 will be the 18th in history, and since 1997, the champion of the Asian Cup has participated in the federation cup on behalf of Asia.
Eight cities undertook it, and nearly 20 cities applied for it
The Asian Cup will be expanded to 24 teams in 2019. According to the requirements of AFC, the final host cities will reach 8. According to domestic media reports, after the Chinese Football Association decided to bid for the 2023 Asian Cup, it has reported 12 cities to the Asian Football Association as alternative venues, including Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Xi'an, Wuhan, Chengdu, Qingdao, Shenyang, Changsha, Ningbo and Luoyang.
In addition to 12 alternative cities, Ordos, Dalian and other places have also submitted applications. At present, nearly 20 cities intend to host the 2023 Asian Cup. The media in Guangdong have revealed in advance that Guangzhou wants to host all the events of the 2023 Asian Cup national football team.
The 2004 Asian Cup was hosted by only four cities, Beijing, Jinan, Chengdu and Chongqing, due to the scale of only 16 teams. The national football team will host all the workers' Stadium in Beijing. With the official announcement of AFC that China will host the 2023 Asian Cup, the next focus will be which eight cities will finally host it.