Jakarta –
China officially declared to resign as host 2022 U-23 Asian Cup. AFC immediately moved to find a replacement country that was willing to hold this celebration.
This news has actually been announced by the AFC on 15 October. Most recently, the AFC agreed to start the bidding process again to find a replacement for China in a virtual meeting of the Competition Committee, Tuesday (11/11/2020).
The U-23 Asian Cup is scheduled to be held on 1-19 June 2022. The reason China resigned was due to a clash with other agendas, most importantly the 2023 Asian Cup where the Panda Country also acted as host.
There is no chance for Indonesia to volunteer to replace China. AFC limits bidding to associations / members from the West Zone only.
“The bidding process for the 2022 U-23 Asian Cup has been agreed upon. This tournament will initially be held in China as well as preparations for the 2023 Asian Cup. But the Chinese Football Federation (CFA) has officially declared its resignation,” read the official AFC statement.
“The (Competition) Committee also agreed to reopen the bidding process for member associations from the West Zone to host the 2022 and 2024 U-23 Asian Cups with the 2026 (U-23 Asian Cup) edition again in preparation for the 2027 Asian Cup,” continued the AFC statement.
AFC also intends to automatically appoint the U-23 Asian Cup host for the next edition for the selected member associations to hold the Asian Cup. For example, Japan will host the 2027 Asian Cup, then they will automatically become the hosts U-23 Asian Cup 2026.
This has actually been implemented in which China will host the 2022 U-23 Asian Cup as well as the 2023 Asian Cup. However, China resigned because its preparations for holding two major events were simultaneously hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In the future, the U-23 Asian Cup in the non-Olympic year will be held by the host of the next Asian Cup. While the (new) schedule for the 2022 U-23 Asian Cup will be discussed in the next meeting,” wrote the AFC.
The U-23 Asian Cup is one of a total of 12 rebranded AFC championships. The title ‘Championship’ in every championship under the auspices of the AFC is changed to ‘Cup’. For example, the AFC U-23 Championship (U-23 Asian Cup), changed the name of the championship to AFC U-23 Asian Cup.
In addition, the AFC also decided the U-16 Asian Cup and U-19 Asian Cup 2020 to be the last editions for that age category. From 2023, the U-16 Asian Cup will become the U-17 Asian Cup. Meanwhile, the U-19 Asian Cup will also be converted into the U-20 Asian Cup starting in 2023.
AFC ensures that the 2020 edition of the championships which are postponed to 2021 will not be affected by the branding effect.
“The latest re-branding only applies to the AFC championships which are scheduled to take place from 2021 and will not affect any age group tournaments which are postponed from 2020,” wrote an AFC statement on 2 October.
(cas / mrp)
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