2023 AFC Asian Cup

The 2023 AFC Asian Cup will be the 18th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The tournament will involve 24 national teams after its expansion of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, including that of the host nation, assuming the current format of the finals is maintained. Qatar are the defending champions.

Host selection
The AFC will select the host country in 19 May 2019 at the AFC Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The following two countries remain in contention to win the bid:


 * 🇨🇳 China – In February 2013, China suggested interest in hosting the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. Nine cities, Beijing, Dalian, Nanjing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Qingdao, Changsha, Guangzhou and Wuhan, were suggested by the Chinese Football Association (CFA) as potential host cities for the tournament. However, in September 2013, the CFA withdrew its bid to focus on player development. In late 2015, the CFA confirmed their intention to bid for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup. In March 2019, it was reported that after evaluation, China had officially proposed to bid for the 2023 Asian Cup. China has previously hosted the 2004 Asian Cup where they reached the final but lost 3–1 to Japan.
 * 🇰🇷 South Korea – South Korea has expressed their interest in hosting the 2023 tournament. South Korea has previously hosted the Asian Cup in 1960, which was also the last time they have won the tournament. Candidate host cities include Suwon, Goyang, Hwaseong, Cheonan, Jeonju, Gwangju, Busan and Jeju.
 * Withdrew
 * 🇮🇳 India – On 26 March 2018, the All India Football Federation expressed interest to bid for hosting the tournament as a pathway towards developing football in the country. India has previously hosted the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup and bid for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup before losing out to Poland. India later withdrew its bid, and chose to focus on a bid for the 2020 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.
 * 🇮🇩 Indonesia – AFC accepted Indonesia as a candidate on 12 April 2016, despite serving its FIFA suspension back then. Indonesia previously hosted in 2007, along with Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. The AFC announced in July 2017 that Indonesia have withdrawn from bidding due to geographic and infrastructure considerations and the expanded format (24 teams), a minimum of 2 to 4 ASEAN countries combined would be in a position necessary to host matches.
 * 🇹🇭 Thailand – Thailand previously hosted in 1972, and also co-hosted in 2007 along with Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. On 21 July 2017, the Football Association of Thailand notified the AFC their decision to withdraw from bidding because due to geographic and infrastructure considerations and the expanded format (24 teams), a minimum of 2 to 4 ASEAN countries combined would be in a position necessary to host matches.

Qualification
The AFC obliged Qatar, the defending champions and 2022 FIFA World Cup hosts, to participate in the qualifying stage for a spot in the 2023 Asian Cup. The stage will also partially act as the Asian qualification for the World Cup, in which Qatar have already qualified automatically. Timor-Leste was barred from participating in the qualification tournament after being found to have fielded a total of twelve ineligible players in 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification matches, among other competitions. However, as FIFA have not barred them from the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Timor-Leste are still allowed to enter the competition, but they are ineligible to qualify for the Asian Cup.