The start of the 2023 homegrown Asian Cup is getting closer and closer, but whether the Asian Cup will be held in China as scheduled is still an open question. According to the latest news from Saudi Arabian media alittihad, the AFC will meet at the end of this year to finally decide on the issue of the 2023 Asian Cup being held, even if the Chinese Football Association cannot ensure that the competition is carried out normally in China, the AFC has not considered changing the host country of the event.
The media quoted an AFC insider as saying that the AFC has recently maintained communication with Chinese football to negotiate issues related to the asian cup. The Chinese Football Association has previously made a commitment to the AFC that it will ensure that the Asian Cup will proceed according to the original plan, but at the same time stressed that the premise is that the environment will improve next year.
In such a case, the AFC has decided to make a decision by the end of this year and will certainly finally come up with a solution to some of the outstanding issues, the sources said. For example, if the environment does not improve and fans from other countries cannot travel to China to watch the Asian Cup due to entry restrictions, the AFC will consider postponing the Asian Cup until the end of 2023 or 2024. But even so, the plan to change the host country of the Asian Cup is still not within the AFC's plan.
West Asian media said that due to a series of recent events, as well as the Chinese men's football team lost its home stadium during the round of 12 and was forced to "wander" West Asia, this has triggered concerns about whether China can host the Asian Cup as originally planned. However, out of trust in China's ability to organize major events, the AFC still recognizes China as the host country of the Asian Cup. In either case, the AFC will come up with a plan in December this year.
For the Chinese men's football team, from the current situation, there is no need to worry about its "host" identity being stripped away by the AFC. In the past 12 rounds, the performance of the Chinese men's football team can be described as a mess, which has been surpassed by the opponents who were originally in the third and fourth class of Asia, so if you want to achieve a good result in the Asian Cup, "home battle" is an indispensable advantage. Fortunately, this advantage of the men's football team was saved.