Qatar Wins 2023 Asian Cup Bid Just Over A Decade After It Last Hosted The Tournament

Qatar has been confirmed as the host nation of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, beating competition from South Korea and Indonesia. The tournament, which will now most likely be shifted to early 2024, will take place in Qatar for the third time.

China had originally won the right to host the tournament, but pulled out due to its Covid-19 prevention policies.

Doha’s shiny new stadiums, ready for the 2022 World Cup, probably helped the small group of Asian Football Confederation committee members who chose the hosts justify their decision, but others will likely be questioning why Qatar gets to host Asia’s most prestigious soccer competition again just 13 years after it last hosted the Asian Cup.

FIFA boss Gianni Infantino often talks about growing the game, taking it outside of Europe to all corners of the world. But in Asia, it seems “growing the game” means holding every possible tournament in either Qatar, the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia.

Qatar most recently hosted the Asian Cup in 2011. Qatar’s bid for the 2027 Asian Cup (which it has now pulled out after being awarded the 2023 tournament) describes Qatar 2011 as “a homerun” and “the best edition in the tournament’s history”.

Others didn’t give the tournament such glowing reviews. CNN says that “stadiums remained stubbornly empty” despite tickets costing as little as $5. Attendances can be low for the Asian Cup, but 2011’s average attendance was around 10,000 fewer than both the 2007 ASEAN tournament and Australia 2015. There were also reports of thousands of fans being shut out from the final by heavy-handed police.

Qatar also hosted the Club World Cup in 2019 and 2020, the knockout stages and most of the group stage matches of the Asian Champions League in 2020 and the Asian Games in 2006. It will host the 2030 Asian Games, and is scheduled to host the Under-23 Asian Cup in early 2024, although this will likely be moved to make space for the Asian Cup.

Saudi Arabia and India are bidding for the 2027 Asian Cup, meaning that the Asian Cup could be played on the Arabian Peninsula for all the tournaments from 2011 to 2027 apart from Australia 2015.

The UAE, which held the most recent Asian Cup in 2019, has also hosted all the Club World Cup tournaments since 2017 that haven’t been in Qatar, while Saudi Arabia has hosted the Spanish and Italian super cups, is hosting the 2029 Asian Winter Games and 2034 Asian Games, and is looking to host the 2030 World Cup.

Qatar’s rival bids for 2023 were South Korea, which last hosted the competition in 1960, and Indonesia, which was one of four joint hosts in 2007, but has never hosted the tournament by itself.

The Asian Cup will likely be moved to winter, which comes in the middle of the European soccer calendar, meaning superstars like Son Heung-min and Mehdi Taremi will have to choose between club and country. In 2019, Son said fatigue had affected his performances in the tournament, which came at the end of a grueling year for the Tottenham Hotspur player. It also means that the tournament will have to compete with the Premier League and La Liga for TV audiences.

The 2023 Asian Cup will give Qatar’s stadiums a purpose once the 2022 World Cup has finished. But while the World Cup might have almost sold out, Qatar will have to do a lot better with its ticketing and promotion than it did in 2011 if it wants to make the 2023 Asian Cup a success and justify the AFC’s decision to award Qatar it’s most prestigious tournament yet again.