The 2023 AFC Asian Cup will be the 18th edition of the AFCAsian Cup, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation. It will be hosted by China in June and July 2023. The tournament will involve 24 national teams after its expansion of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, including that of the host nation, assuming the current format of the finals is maintained. Qatar are the defending champions.
The first two rounds of qualification also act as the Asian qualification for the WorldCup, in which Qatar have already qualified automatically. Qatar are participating in these rounds only for qualification to the 2023 Asian Cup. China, which have automatically qualified for the 2023 Asian Cup, will also participate in the qualifiers in order to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Timor-Leste were barred from participating in the qualification tournament after being found to have fielded a total of twelve ineligible players in 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification matches, among other competitions. However, as FIFA did not bar them from the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Timor-Leste were still allowed to enter the competition, but were ineligible to qualify for the Asian Cup. Qualifying began on 6 June 2019 for 23 spots joining the host nation China. The tournament will take place in June and July 2023, moved from the typical January/February scheduling of the AFC Asian Cup due to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, which takes place in November and December 2022.
Twelve host cities were submitted in the bid, including seven new football-specific stadia to be constructed, and renovation works planned for the existing stadia. The new Pudong Football Stadium in Shanghai was proposed to host the final and a semi-final, with the a renovated Workers' Stadium in Beijing to host the other semi-final. The new stadia are planned to be completed by the end of 2021, however, the bid included existing backup stadia in each of these cities. On 28 December 2019, the Chinese Football Association announced ten cities to host the tournament. In January 2020, the AFC announced 10 stadiums for this edition.
