Embarrassingly, the AFC has not yet received a letter of willingness to bid
According to the well-known media "Football" reported that as of a few days ago, the AFC has not received any letter of intent from any Asian association member states on bidding for the Asian Cup, and Japan, South Korea and Acre, which have been rumored to be "scandalous" before, have not had any news about hosting the Asian Cup, and even the Southeast Asian countries that have "wanted to move" before have not had a little wind, and the AFC may be suffering from the situation of being ignored by the members of the association since its inception.
Could it be that all the previous countries that were willing to bid were just to create momentum for the AFC?
Asian Cup
Although Asia is big, the time is too rushed to find a suitable option
Due to the sudden seriousness of the epidemic in China in 2022, and the inability to guarantee the receding of the epidemic in the next two years, and combined with the mainland's own epidemic prevention requirements, the full opening up of the AFC cannot be achieved at the same time, so the Chinese Football Association officially announced on May 14 that it would give up the hosting rights of the 2023 Asian Cup.
Because of the lack of time, the AFC immediately issued an invitation to other Asian member states to bid. However, what the AFC did not expect was that no country wanted to bid, and never received even a single official letter of intent. What is even more worrying for the AFC is that it has limited the submission time of the application letter before June 30, which means that there are only 10 days left before the deadline set by the AFC to submit the application letter of intent, because this makes many willing countries prohibitive.
Generally speaking, the normal asian cup cycle is four years, from the bidding to the confirmation also takes almost four years, from the determination to the planning to the construction of the site to the full preparation of the also need four years, which means that if you want to hold a good Asian Cup, it takes two cycles, and the current situation is that the time of these two cycles is compressed in less than a year, which is almost impossible to complete. If you really want to pull out one, you are the only ones who can be satisfied.
Each association member has its own "top priority" and "overwhelmed" Asian Cup
According to the previous rules of the AFC, the Asian Cup was held in turn by East and West Asia. After China abstained, the first thing that the AFC thought of was Australia, which also belongs to East Asia, and hoped that Australia could stand up, after all, Australia hosted the Asian Cup in 2015, and the objective conditions such as venues and venues could be met. However, Australia will have a more heavyweight cup next year than the Asian Cup, that is, it needs to jointly host the Women's World Cup with New Zealand (2023.7.20-8.20), which basically conflicts with the Asian Cup in time, so after the AFC asked the Australian Football Association for advice, the latter explicitly rejected the AFC's request. First of all, the most likely ones are excluded, and the rest are basically similar.
There are also several popular options, all of which are unable to find time to prepare for next year's Asian Cup because of their own affairs. For example, in Qatar, at the end of this year, the World Cup will open in Qatar, and the world cup is Qatar's top priority. Saudi Arabia is willing to hold the 2027 Asian Cup and is likely to get the right to host the next edition, and their U23 has just won the Asian championship and obviously does not want to take over this hot potato.
Japan and South Korea have concerns about the short preparation period, although the South Korean president expressed a strong willingness to the outside world, the Korean Football Association only echoed, but really to the deadline or "fart" did not put one, that is, the kind of thunder and rain points are small, just for the AFC to create momentum, really to their own interests when people will still be worried. Compared with the Asian Cup, Japan aims to be international and is more interested in hosting the all-new Club World Cup, which will be restarted by the 24 teams next summer.
In the end, if the AFC is willing to give in, China may still be the best choice
Want to host the Asian Cup in such a short period of time, in fact, the best conditions are Qatar, after all, just after the World Cup, the hardware facilities are met, hosting the Asian Cup is the most realistic choice. However, the holding of the cup is also about the time and place, and Qatar has been brushed off under this climatic conditions alone. But if Qatar is willing and the AFC is willing to postpone it, then the 2023 Asian Cup will be postponed to early 2024. But this will undoubtedly disrupt the arrangement of other AFC events, after all, the World Cup qualifiers are more important, the attention is higher, and the whole body is involved.
AFC President Salman
Looking back, if the AFC is willing to make concessions, does not open to the outside world, opens the tournament in a fully enclosed manner, and strictly prevents the epidemic like the Olympic Games, it may still be able to be held as scheduled, after all, China has prepared for nearly two cycles from the success of the bid to the present, and the venues and venues have been basically complete. The time and place may be lacking, but compared with other countries is already the most ideal choice, before whether it is domestic media, or foreign media including Korean media Vietnamese media have reported that the Asian Cup may be re-organized by China! However, there is no turning back arrow in the bow, and the light interest is this piece, how can the AFC give in, and the AFC firmly believes that without you China, there must be other candidates, and you are not the only one.
So if it insists on insisting, the final result may be that it cannot be held as scheduled, for the AFC at present, it has fallen into a dilemma, it depends on the AFC itself if it weighs it!