Official! Indonesia Competes With Australia, South Korea And Qatar To Host The 2023 Asian Cup

Asian Cup illustration. (PHOTO/INSTAGRAM @afcasiancup)

JAKARTA – Indonesia is one of four countries that are bidding to host the 2023 Asian Cup. The other three countries are Australia, South Korea and Qatar.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) officially announced on Monday, 18 July. One of the four countries will be chosen to host the four-year event.

"South Korea, Australia, Indonesia and Qatar have submitted Expressions of Interest to replace China as the host of next year's Asian Cup," the AFC said, reported by CNA.

The deadline for the four associations to submit their bid documents has been set to 31 August. Furthermore, the AFC Executive Committee will announce who will be chosen to host on 17 October.

Indonesia's opportunity to become the host is quite large. If elected, Indonesia will have two major events next year including the U-20 World Cup.

Indonesia previously hosted the 2007 Asian Cup with Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. At that time the journey of the Garuda squad immediately stopped in the group stage.

The 2023 Asian Cup will take place from June 16 to July 16. China was supposed to be the host for the event which was attended by 24 national teams.

However, the country's efforts to reduce the recent increase in cases of the COVID-19 virus forced them to withdraw. Opportunities are then given to interested countries.