Asian Cup confirmed for January-February slot in Qatar next year
A man wearing personal protective equipment walks past a billboard advertising the 2023 AFC Asian Cup in Beijing on May 14, 2022. (File photo: Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
The next edition of the Asian Cup will be held in Qatar from Jan 12 to Feb 10, 2024, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) confirmed on Wednesday (Apr 5).
The quadrennial continental championship was awarded to China in 2019, but the world's most populous country relinquished the rights last year as it pursued a zero-COVID policy.
Qatar, which hosted the men's World Cup finals last year, was then named the host after the Gulf state was preferred to bids from South Korea and Indonesia.
The 24-team tournament has been moved from mid-2023 to early 2024 to avoid the heat of the Gulf summer.
Qatar has staged the Asian Cup twice, in 1988 and 2011, and it won the last tournament in the United Arab Emirates in 2019.
The AFC said that the tournament will be staged across eight stadiums, six of which were used during the World Cup, where Argentina were winners.
The Asian Cup will coincide with the Africa Cup of Nations finals, which will run from Jan 13 to Feb 11 in Ivory Coast.
