MUSCAT, MARCH 7
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) chose May 11 as the date for the draw for the Asian Nations Cup Qatar 2023, which will be held from January 12 to February 10, 2024, with the participation of 24 teams for the second time in the history of the tournament after the UAE 2019 edition. The draw ceremony will be held in The Opera House in Katara Cultural District in Doha.
Oman national team will participate in the tournament for the fifth time in its history after 2004, 2007, 2015 and 2019, ensuring its qualification for the next edition after reaching the final stage of the qualifiers for the Qatar World Cup 2022.
The tournament was scheduled to be held in 10 Chinese cities in June and July of this year 2023 before China apologised last year due to the exceptional circumstances related to the Covid pandemic. Then South Korea and Indonesia, along with Qatar, expressed their desire to host the tournament. Before the two countries withdrew, Qatar won the organisation for the third time in its history.
The organising committee of the tournament in Qatar announced that the competitions would take place between January 12 and February 10 from the year 2024.
According to the continental championship regulations, the 24 teams are distributed into 6 groups, each comprising 4 teams, from which the leaders and runner-up qualify, in addition to the best four teams that are in third place, for the round of 16, which is held by the knockout system.
The AFC will depend on the classification of the draw levels on the Fifa classification of the teams, which will be issued next month.
The 24 teams that qualified for the AFC Asian Cup finals are Qatar, Oman, Japan, Iran, Australia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Iraq, UAE, China, Syria, Vietnam, Lebanon, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Palestine, Kyrgyzstan, India, Tajikistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia.
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