AFC abandon bidding process for hosting 2031 and 2035 AFC Asian Cup

India fails to qualify for AFC Asian Cup 2027

The AFC (Asian Football Confederation) has been forced into abandoning the process of bidding from different national federations for the hosting of the 2031 and the 2035 AFC Asian Cup editions.

India were notably among one of the national federations who had shown an official interest in potentially hosting the AFC Asian Cup in 2031.

In fact, the All-India Football Federation (AIFF) even put forward their intentions to be part of the bidding process along with five other interested countries, with India having already hosted the AFC Women’s Asian Cup successfully in 2022.

However, the All-Indian Football Federation have now received a blow as the bidding process itself has been completely abandoned by the AFC because of certain circumstances.

Why did the AFC abandon the 2031 and 2035 AFC Asian Cup bidding process?

The upcoming AFC Asian Cup in 2027 will, of course, be held in Saudi Arabia and the qualification process for that is going on. India will not be able to play in the 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification after missing out on the top 2 places in their group, but the AIFF wanted to ensure they did in 2031 as the direct hosts.

It was earlier in 2026 when the AFC had confirmed India as the one of six bidders who wanted to host the 2031 AFC Asian Cup.

India faced competition from countries like Australia, South Korea, Kuwait as well as joint-bids from Indonesia & Krygyzstan as well as Tajikistan & Uzbekistan, to host the prestigious tournament.

However, now the AFC have confirmed that the bidding process will not be moving forward because they are anticipating major shifts in the FIFA International matches/break calendar in the near future.

As a result, the AFC wants to wait and discover how the global calendar for international football dates for the next decade or so will look like.

Once that is done, only then will the AFC be able to finalize hosting windows for the 2031 and the 2035 AFC Asian Cup editions.

Once that can be confirmed, the AFC are planning on starting a fresh bidding cycle for the rights to host the two editions of the AFC Asian Cup.

Is India out of contention for hosting 2031 AFC Asian Cup?

This blow doesn’t entirely mean that India has no chance of competing in the bidding process for hosting the 2031 AFC Asian Cup. However, as a brand-new bidding cycle will be commencing after the FIFA windows situation is resolved, the AIFF will need to present a brand-new bid to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

As a result, the AIFF will need to properly plan the details of their bids, which includes which cities can be vying as the venues to host the 2031 AFC Asian Cup.

Moreover, India might even face challenges from newer countries as part of the next AFC Asian Cup 2031 bidding process as the AFC is likely to encourage every viable federation from inside the AFC to put forward their bids to host the 2031 Asian Cup editions.

Interestingly, India had also previously bid to host the 2023 and 2027 AFC Asian Cup in the past before having to withdraw their bids because of problems.

India has never been able to host an edition of the AFC Asian Cup in the tournament’s history, but did host the AFC Women’s Asian Cup in 2022.

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