The 2023 AFC Asian Cup was the 18th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It involved 24 national teams after its expansion in 2019, with hosts Qatar the defending champions.

On 17 October 2022, the AFC announced that the tournament would be held in Qatar, replacing the original hosts China. Due to the high summer temperatures and Qatar's participation in the 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup, the tournament was postponed to 12 January – 10 February 2024, while retaining the original name for both existing sponsorship and logistical purposes. The 2023 tournament were the second of three consecutive Asian Cup to be held in Middle East, following the 2019 AFC Asian Cup in United Arab Emirates and preceding the 2027 AFC Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia. This marked the first time a country hosted the AFC Asian Cup having hosted the FIFA World Cup before. Due to the one-year postponement, Qatar 2023 was the only tournament to not have been held in an odd-numbered year since the 2007 edition.

Hosts and defending champions Qatar retained their title after defeating Jordan 3–1 in the final.

Host selection

China was acclaimed as the host country on 4 June 2019, as sole finishing bidder, days just prior to the 69th FIFA Congress in Paris, France. The tournament was originally scheduled to be held from 16 June to 16 July 2023. On 14 May 2022, the AFC announced that China would not host the tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic and China's Zero-COVID policy. Due to China's relinquishment of its hosting rights, the AFC conducted a second round of bidding, with a deadline for submissions scheduled on 17 October 2022. Four nations submitted bids: Australia, Indonesia, Qatar, and South Korea. However, Australia subsequently withdrew in September 2022, as did Indonesia on 15 October. On 17 October, the AFC announced that Qatar had won the bid and would host the tournament.

Venues

Five host cities were submitted in the 2023 bid, including seven stadiums previously prepared for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. On 5 April 2023, the AFC announced the eight stadiums across four host cities for the tournament. On 21 August 2023, Lusail Stadium was added as a ninth venue. All but one (Stadium 974) of the host stadiums from the 2022 FIFA World Cup were selected for the tournament, along with Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, which hosted matches during the 2011 edition, and Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium, which had not hosted any international tournament previously.

Lusail Stadium hosted the opening match on 12 January. Ahmad bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan and Al Thumama Stadium in Doha hosted the semi-final matches, with Lusail hosted the final held on 10 February.

On 5 January 2024, the Main Media Centre for the coverage of the tournament was officially inaugurated in Msheireb Downtown Doha.

+List of host cities and stadiums City Stadium CapacityImageAl KhorAl Bayt Stadium 68,895 Lusail Lusail Stadium 88,966Al Rayyan Ahmad bin Ali Stadium 45,032 Education City Stadium 44,667 Jassim bin Hamad Stadium 13,030Khalifa International Stadium 45,857DohaAbdullah bin Khalifa Stadium 10,221 Al Thumama Stadium 44,400 Al Wakrah Al Janoub Stadium 44,325

Teams

The first two rounds of qualification also served as the Asian qualification for the 2022 World Cup. Qatar, the host of the World Cup, participated only in the second round to qualify for the 2023 Asian Cup (which they were later selected as hosts for after China withdrew its hosting rights).

Qualified teams Of the 24 teams appearing, 20 teams were returning after appearing in the 2019 edition.

Tajikistan were the only debutant in the competition, while Hong Kong marked their return for the first time in 56 years. Indonesia and Malaysia both qualified for the first time since hosting the 2007 AFC Asian Cup.

Four nations from the previous edition failed to qualify (North Korea, the Philippines, Turkmenistan, and Yemen). India was the only SAFF representative in this edition, while it was the first time that five teams from the AFF managed to reach the finals (Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam). Only two teams from WAFF failed to qualify for this tournament (Yemen and Kuwait). Iran meanwhile extended their qualification record; this was their fifteenth straight appearance in the tournament, having qualified for every edition since 1968.

As of 2026, this was the last time that Hong Kong, India and Malaysia qualified for the Asian Cup, and the last time that Kuwait, North Korea and Singapore failed to qualify.

Team Method ofqualification Date ofqualificationFinalsappearance Lastappearance Previous bestperformance 13th 2019 (1984, 2004) 10th 2019 7th 2019 , later appointed hosts 11th 2019 15th 2019 5th 2019 15th 2019 11th 2019 11th 2019 10th 2019 5th 2019 5th 2019 3rd 2019 3rd 2019 8th 2019 8th 2019 5th 2019 4th 1968 1st Debut None 2nd 2019 7th 2019 4th 2007 5th 2019 5th 2007

Draw The draw was held at the Katara Opera House in Doha on 11 May 2023. +From the April 2023 FIFA World Rankings Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4 (61) (hosts) (20) (24) (27) (29) (54) (67) (72) (73) (74) (81) (84) (85) (90) (93) (95) (96) (99) (101) (109) (114) (138) (147) (149)

Draw result Teams were drawn into Groups A to F. For the first time in AFC Asian Cup history, the teams from lowest pots were drawn first but not assigned to the positions of their groups, following by number orders of the group stage, as in previous editions. Pot 1 teams were assigned to the first positions of their groups, while next the positions of all other teams were drawn separately from Pot 4 to 2 (for the purposes of determining the match schedules in each group).

The groups were confirmed following the draw:

+ 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 was required to registered a squad with a minimum of 18 players and a maximum of 23 players, at least three of whom had to be goalkeepers. In December 2023, the maximum was increased to 26 players.

Officiating On 14 September 2023, the AFC announced the list of 33 referees, 37 assistant referees, two stand-by referees and eight stand-by assistant referees for the tournament, including two female referees and three female assistant referees. (This included Yoshimi Yamashita, who became the first woman to referee at any AFC Asian Cup.) Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was used for the entire tournament following its implementation from the quarter-final stage onwards in the 2019 edition. The Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT) system, which utilized twelve specialized cameras and artificial intelligence, was also implemented at all 51 matches. This marked the first time that SAOT was in place at an AFC competition and made the AFC the first confederation to apply the system at the continental men's national team level. Referees

Shaun Evans Alireza Faghani Kate Jacewicz Fu Ming Ma Ning Mooud Bonyadifard Mohanad Qasim Sarray Yusuke Araki Jumpei Iida Hiroyuki Kimura Yoshimi Yamashita Adham Makhadmeh Ahmad Al-Ali Abdullah Jamali Nazmi Nasaruddin Ahmed Al-Kaf Abdulrahman Al-Jassim Abdulla Al-Marri Khamis Al-Marri Salman Falahi Mohammed Al-Hoaish Khalid Al-Turais Muhammad Taqi Kim Hee-gon Kim Jong-hyeok Ko Hyung-jin Hanna Hattab Sadullo Gulmurodi Sivakorn Pu-udom Omar Al-Ali Adel Al-Naqbi Mohammed Abdulla Hassan Mohamed Akhrol Riskullaev Ilgiz Tantashev

Assistant referees

Ashley Beecham Anton Shchetinin Zhang Cheng Zhou Fei Alireza Ildorom Saeid Ghasemi Ahmed Al-Baghdadi Watheq Al-Swaiedi Makoto Bozono Jun Mihara Takumi Takagi Naomi Teshirogi Mohammad Al-Kalaf Ahmad Al-Roalle Ahmad Abbas Abdulhadi Al-Anezi Mohd Arif Shamil Bin Abd Rasid Mohamad Zairul Bin Khalil Tan Abu Bakar Al-Amri Rashid Al-Ghaithi Saoud Al-Maqaleh Taleb Al-Marri Zaid Al-Shammari Yasir Al-Sultan Abdul Hannan Bin Abdul Hasim Ronnie Koh Min Kiat Kim Kyoung-min Park Sang-jun Yoon Jae-yeol Ali Ahmad Mohamad Kazzaz Tanate Chuchuen Rawut Nakarit Mohamed Al-Hammadi Hasan Al-Mahri Timur Gaynullin Andrey Tsapenko

Stand-by referees

Toru Kamikawa Majed Al-Shamrani

Stand-by assistant referees

Cao Yi Cheung Yim Yau Ismail Al-Hafi Saad Al-Fadhli Abdulrahman Hussein Mohammed Al-Abakry John Chia Eng Wah Farkhad Abdullaev

Opening ceremony The opening ceremony, named "The Lost Chapter of Kelileh o Demneh" took place at Lusail Stadium, before the opening game between Qatar and Lebanon on 12 January 2024.

Group stage

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:

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams; If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams; Goal difference in all group matches; Goals scored in all group matches; Penalty shoot-out if only two teams were tied and they played each other in the last round of the group; Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points); Drawing of lots.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Ranking of third-placed teams The four best third-placed teams from the six groups advanced to the knockout stage along with the six group winners and six runners-up.

Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, extra time and a penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary.

Bracket

All times are local, AST (UTC+3).

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Statistics

Goalscorers

Discipline A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences: Receiving a red card (red card suspensions could be extended for serious offences) Receiving two yellow cards in two matches (yellow card suspensions are not carried forward to any other future international matches) After reaching the semi-finals, all yellow cards and red cards received are reset. This means that even if a player receives a yellow card in the semi-finals, any previous cards won't count, allowing them to participate in the final The following suspensions occurred during the tournament: