Five West Asian countries compete for the new U23 Asian Cup
According to the plan, the AFC will confirm the 6th U23 Asian Cup in 2024 at the end of September, which is the host of the Asian qualifiers for the Paris Olympic Men's Football Tournament.
It is understood that the competition for the right to host the event is very fierce. At present, a total of 5 member associations in the West Asia region have submitted bids.
According to an unwritten practice, the AFC implements the selection of the host of the U23 Asian Cup in accordance with the principle of "every two tournaments are held in turn in the member association countries (regions) of the East and West Asia regions".
For example, the 2014 and 2016 competitions were held in Oman and Qatar in the West Asia region, and the 2018 and 2020 competitions were held in China and Thailand in the East Asia region respectively.
This year's 5th tournament was held in Uzbekistan, and the member association was designated by the AFC as one of the member associations in the Western Asia Region.
Therefore, as usual, the next U23 Asian Cup should continue to be held in West Asia.
To this end, the member associations in the West Asia region responded positively to the bid.
So far, member associations from 5 countries including Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan have submitted bids.
Since the AFC has no regulations restricting the same member association from bidding for two consecutive tournaments, the Uzbekistan Football Association continues to bid for the next tournament.
The main reason why the bid for the U23 Asian Cup is so popular is that the even-numbered events of this event are combined with the Asian finals of the Olympic men's football qualifiers.
According to the results jointly confirmed by FIFA and the International Olympic Committee, a total of 16 teams participated in the men's football competition of the Paris Olympic Games, of which the AFC representative team won 3.5 entries.
In other words, the top 4 teams that won the 6th U23 Asian Cup will have a chance to qualify. Except for the top 3 teams going directly to Paris, the 4th team must compete with the 4th team in the African qualifiers to produce a team. Tickets to the Paris Olympic Games.
Compared with European and South American teams, Asian teams have a higher chance of winning against African teams.
According to the AFC competition plan, the 6th U23 Asian Cup qualifiers will be held during the international competition period from September 4 to 12, 2023.
The final stage was originally scheduled to take place from January 10 to 28, 2024.
It is worth noting that because Qatar is currently competing with South Korea and Indonesia for the right to host the 2023 Asian Cup finals, once Qatar wins, the new Asian Cup will likely be postponed to January 2024, so the 6th U23 Asia Cup finals may be further postponed.
Text / Newspaper reporter Xiao Xun