The 2019 AFC Asian Cup (or commonly called the Asian Cup 2019) was the 17th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held in the United Arab Emirates from 5 January to 1 February 2019.
For the first time, 24 teams competed for the title, replacing the 16-team format used from 2004 to 2015. Under this new format, the finalists would contest a group stage consisting of six groups of four teams, followed by a knockout stage of 16 teams. The host nation qualified for the final tournament automatically, while the remaining 23 places were determined among the other 45 national teams of the AFC through a qualifying competition running from 2015 to 2018, part of which also served as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process for the confederation. It was the first of three consecutive Asian Cups held in Middle East, preceding the 2023 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar and the 2027 AFC Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia.
The tournament was won for the first time by Qatar, who defeated Japan 3–1 in the final. This was Qatar's first ever top-four finish in the competition. Defending champions Australia were eliminated in the quarter-finals by the hosts United Arab Emirates, who subsequently lost to eventual winners Qatar in the semi-finals.
Host selection
The bidding procedure and timeline for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup was approved at the AFC congress on 28 November 2012. The winning bid was originally set to be announced at an AFC congress in June, then November 2014. However, at its 60th anniversary celebrations at the end of 2014, AFC gave the date of 'summer 2015' to when an announcement would be made.
In January 2015, AFC general secretary Alex Soosay said that Iran and the United Arab Emirates were the only two remaining bidders for the 2019 Asian Cup, and that the eventual hosts would be announced in March 2015.
On 9 March 2015, during an AFC Executive Committee meeting in Manama, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates was announced as the host. This was the second time the country hosted the tournament, after the 1996 edition.
Teams
Qualification
The 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification process determined the 24 participating teams for the tournament. In 2014, a proposal to merge the preliminary qualification rounds of the FIFA World Cup with those of the AFC Asian Cup was ratified by the AFC Competitions Committee. The new qualification structure took place in three stages, with the first two merging with the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification In the first round, the lowest ranked teams played home-and-away over two legs to reduce the total number of teams to 40. In the second round, the 40 teams were divided into eight groups of five to play home-and-away round-robin matches, where the eight group winners and the four best group runners-up qualified for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup finals. In the third round, the next best 24 teams eliminated from second round were divided into six groups of four and competed for the remaining slots of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. The first qualifying round of the qualification took place on 12 March 2015, and the final match of the third round took place on 27 March 2018.
Qualified teams India, Syria, Thailand, and Turkmenistan qualified for the tournament after being absent in several Asian Cup tournaments spanning from 2004 to 2015. Lebanon and Vietnam both qualified for the first time after hosting the tournaments, in 2000 and 2007 respectively. For Vietnam, this was the first time they qualified for the AFC Asian Cup as a unified nation, having participated as South Vietnam in the first two editions (1956 and 1960), outside of hosting the 2007 edition. This was also the first time Yemen qualified for the AFC Asian Cup as a unified country, due to FIFA and AFC categorizing the participation of South Yemen in the 1976 as a distinct record not related to Yemen, who succeeded North Yemen. In addition to Yemen, Kyrgyzstan and the Philippines also marked this edition as their first times to qualify for an Asian Cup.
Iran qualified for the Asian Cup for the first time as a CAFA member, having qualified as part of the WAFF before. Afghanistan, along with its fellow CAFA member nation Tajikistan, were the only two countries from the Central Asian zone which failed to qualify for the tournament. Indonesia and Malaysia were the only co-hosts of the 2007 edition that did not qualify for the Asian Cup, as Indonesia was barred from entering the qualification due to tension inside the PSSI which led to FIFA suspension; while Malaysia had ended their campaign in disaster with just one point out of six matches. Kuwait was the only West Asian team not to qualify for the Asian Cup, as they were also barred from completing the qualification due to FIFA's sanction. India remained as the only South Asian team to qualify for the tournament. On 13 November 2018, the Asian Football Confederation warned the Iranian government to stop meddling in the country's football association, otherwise, it would have faced sanctions before the Asian Cup.
The following 24 teams qualified for the final tournament:
Team Method ofqualification Date ofqualificationFinalsappearance Lastappearance Previous bestperformance December 2018FIFA ranking 10th 2015 79 10th 2015 93 14th 2015 53 9th 2015 50 7th 2007 118 10th 2015 69 4th 2015 41 7th 2015 95 14th 2015 29 6th 2011 74 9th 2015 88 12th 2015 76 2nd 2015 99 4th 2015 82 4th 2011 97 2nd 2000 81 2nd 2004 127 4th 2015 109 6th 2015 113 4th 2007 100 1st Debut None 91 5th 2015 109 1st Debut None 116 1st2 Debut None 135
1 As South Vietnam 2 Yemen once qualified for the 1976 AFC Asian Cup as South Yemen, but according to FIFA and the AFC, the previous records of Yemen are registered as North Yemen instead.
Draw
The draw of the final tournament was held on 4 May 2018, 19:30 GST, at the Armani Hotel in the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The FIFA rankings of April 2018 were used as basis for the seeding. The 12 teams that secured their place in the final tournament by the end of the second round of the qualification process were placed in Pots 1 and 2 while the remaining teams which qualified during the third round were allocated to the remaining pots. As hosts, the United Arab Emirates were seeded into Pot 1. The 24 teams were drawn into six groups of four teams, with the hosts placed in position A1. Four renowned Asian players: Ali Daei, Sun Jihai, Sunil Chhetri, and Phil Younghusband were chosen to draw the teams.
Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4 (81) (hosts) (36) (40) (60) (61) (70) (73) (76) (88) (88) (101) (122) (75) (82) (83) (87) (97) (103) (112) (113) (116) (117) (125) (129)
Draw result Teams were drawn consecutively into Group A to F. Teams from each pot were assigned to the positions of their groups following by number orders of group stage, for example Pot 1 team were assigned to A1, and continued.
The draw resulted in the following groups:
+ Group A Team A1 A2 A3 A4 + Group B Team B1 B2 B3 B4 + Group C Team C1 C2 C3 C4 + Group D Team D1 D2 D3 D4 + Group E Team E1 E2 E3 E4 + Group F Team F1 F2 F3 F4
Squads
Each team had to register a squad with a minimum of 18 players and a maximum of 23 players, at least three of whom must be goalkeepers.
Match officials
On 5 December 2018, the AFC announced the list of 30 referees, 30 assistant referees, two stand-by referees and two stand-by assistant referees, including one referee and two assistant referees from CONCACAF for the tournament. Video assistant referees (VAR) would be used from the quarter-finals onwards. In each match, the referee and his assistants were accompanied by two additional assistant referees stationed next to each team's goalpost.
Referees
Chris Beath Peter Green Nawaf Shukralla Fu Ming Ma Ning Liu Kwok Man Alireza Faghani Ali Sabah Mohanad Qasim Sarray Jumpei Iida Hiroyuki Kimura Ryuji Sato Ahmed Faisal Al-Ali Adham Makhadmeh Kim Dong-jin Ko Hyung-jin Mohd Amirul Izwan Yaacob César Ramos Ahmed Al-Kaf Abdulrahman Al-Jassim Khamis Al-Kuwari Khamis Al-Marri Turki Al-Khudhayr Muhammad Taqi Hettikamkanamge Perera Ammar Al-Jeneibi Mohammed Abdulla Hassan Mohamed Ravshan Irmatov Valentin Kovalenko Ilgiz Tantashev
Assistant referees
Matthew Cream Anton Shchetinin Mohamed Salman Yaser Tulefat Cao Yi Huo Weiming Mohammadreza Mansouri Reza Sokhandan Jun Mihara Hiroshi Yamauchi Mohammad Al-Kalaf Ahmad Al-Roalleh Park Sang-jun Yoon Kwang-yeol Sergei Grishchenko Mohd Yusri Muhamad Mohd Zainal Abidin Miguel Hernández Alberto Morín Abu Bakar Al-Amri Rashid Al-Ghaithi Saud Al-Maqaleh Taleb Al-Marri Mohammed Al-Bakri Ronnie Koh Min Kiat Palitha Hemathunga Mohamed Al-Hammadi Hasan Al-Mahri Abdukhamidullo Rasulov Jakhongir Saidov
Video assistant referees
Paolo Valeri Danny Makkelie
Stand-by referees
Nivon Robesh Gamini Hanna Hattab
Stand-by assistant referees
Ali Ubaydee Priyanga Palliya Guruge
Venues After being awarded the bid, initially the UAE chose six stadiums to host the tournament. The six stadiums were Zayed Sports City Stadium and Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium and Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain, and Dubai's Al Ahli Stadium and DSC Stadium. Later, two stadiums in Dubai were dropped due to financial problems and were replaced by Al Maktoum Stadium and Rashid Stadium, which were also located in Dubai.
After the 2015 Asian Cup, the AFC agreed to increase the number of teams from 16 to 24, following the UEFA Euro 2016. Hence, more stadiums were about to be chosen and rebuilt, in which Sharjah and Abu Dhabi won the rights to have more stadiums for the tournament. Sharjah Stadium and Al Nahyan Stadium were chosen aftermath, finalized the number of stadium to eight.
The eight venues used are Zayed Sports City Stadium, Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium, and Al Nahyan Stadium in Abu Dhabi, Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium and Khalifa Bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain, Al Maktoum Stadium and Rashid Stadium in Dubai, and Sharjah Stadium in Sharjah.
Abu Dhabi Zayed Sports City Stadium Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium Al Nahyan Stadium Capacity: 43,206 Capacity: 36,186 Capacity: 15,894 Dubai Rashid Stadium Capacity: 12,052 Dubai Al Maktoum Stadium Capacity: 15,058Al Ain Sharjah Hazza bin Zayed Stadium Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium Sharjah Stadium Capacity: 25,053 Capacity: 12,000 Capacity: 12,499
Format The tournament was expanded to 24 teams from the previous format of 16 teams, which had been used since 2004. Only the hosts will receive an automatic qualification spot, while the other 23 teams will qualify through a qualification tournament. At the finals, the 24 teams will be drawn into six groups of four teams each. The teams in each group play a single round robin. After the group stage, the top two teams and the four best third teams will advance to the knockout stage, beginning with the round of 16. For the first time since a knockout stage was added to the competition in 1972, there will be no third place play-off.
Schedule
The AFC announced the official match schedule on 7 May 2018. Zayed Sports City Stadium, one of three stadiums in Abu Dhabi, staged both the opening match and the final. At least five matches were allocated to each venue, with every ground hosting at least one match in the knockout stage. The semi-finals were played on different days in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. No city hosted two matches on the same day – except in the final round of group stage matches when simultaneous kick-off is required.
Group stage The top two teams of each group and the four best third-placed teams advanced to the round of 16.
All times are local, GST (UTC+4).
Tiebreakers Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings: