FOOTBALL – Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president and Fifa first vice-president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa chaired the sixth executive committee meeting on the sidelines of the 35th AFC Congress in Malaysia.
Shaikh Salman commended the record number of bids submitted to host the AFC Asian Cup 2031, emphasising that receiving seven expressions of interest demonstrates the prestigious status the tournament has now achieved as the most important national team competition in Asia.
The AFC had issued a call on November 27 of last year to all member national associations to express their interest in hosting the upcoming edition of the continental tournament, with the deadline set for March 31.
The AFC received official responses from the following associations: the Football Federation Australia, the Football Association of Indonesia, the All India Football Federation (AIFF), the Korea Football Association (KFA), the Kuwait Football Association, the UAE Football Association (UAEFA), as well as a joint bid from the Football Federation of the Kyrgyz Republic (KFU), the Tajikistan Football Federation (TFF), and the Uzbekistan Football Association (UFA).
Shaikh Salman emphasised that the AFC Asian Cup is one of the AFC’s greatest success stories, and the recent edition hosted by Qatar further solidified the tournament’s status as one of the best continental competitions in the world.
He said that the record number of hosting bids once again reflects the tournament’s increasing prestige and appeal. The 18th edition hosted by Qatar set record numbers in terms of attendance, while also seeing a digital engagement of 7.9 billion impressions, reaching a global audience across more than 60 broadcasters in over 160 countries and regions.
With Saudi Arabia confirmed as the host for the next edition in 2027 during the 33rd general assembly held in the Bahraini capital, the country that will be honoured to host the 2031 edition will be expected to build on this legacy and enhance the status of the continental tournament.
Shaikh Salman underscored that hosting the tournament has long contributed to tangible and intangible benefits, including infrastructure development, strengthening community bonds, gaining organisational experience, improving the technical level of the game, and establishing the host country as a global sports hub.
In the next phase, the AFC will work with the national associations that have submitted hosting bids to complete the required documents according to the approved timeline, with a workshop dedicated to the bidding process scheduled for later this month.
Subsequently, the AFC administration will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the submitted bids, ahead of selecting the host country for the tournament, which will feature 24 national teams, through a vote by the General Assembly in 2026.
During the meeting, the executive committee also approved the decisions of all the standing committees, including the AFC Asian Cup organising committee, the finance committee, the competitions committee, and the professional football committee.
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