2019 AFC Asian Cup

The 2019 AFC Asian Cup will be the 17th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation(AFC). It will be held in the United Arab Emirates from 5 January to 1 February 2019. The United Arab Emirates was announced as the host for the tournament on 9 March 2015, with Iran being the only remaining bidder for the right to host the 2019 finals. It will be the second time that the United Arab Emirates hosts the tournament after the 1996 finals.

For the first time, the Asian Cup final tournament will be contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format that was used from 2004 to 2015. Under this new format, the finalists will contest a group stage consisting of six groups of four teams, followed by a knockout stage of 16 teams. The host nation automatically qualified for the final tournament, while the remaining 23 places were determined among the other 45 national teams through a qualifying competition, running from March 2015 to March 2018, in which the first two rounds also served as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process for the AFC.

Australia is the defending champions going into the tournament, having won the previous competition in 2015. The winner of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup will earn the right to participate in the 2021 FIFA Confederations Cup which is to be hosted by a yet to be determined AFC association after 2022 FIFA World Cup hosts, Qatar, lost the rights. The 2021 Confederations Cup host country will have already qualified as hosts. If this country wins the Asian Cup, the runner-up will qualify.

Venues:

Initially, after being awarded as host of the 2019 edition, the UAE had intended to finalize the number of stadiums into six, to serve for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. But then two more stadiums was chosen aftermath, finalized the number of the stadium to eight.

Squads:

Each team must register a squad of minimum 18 players and maximum 23 players, minimum three of whom must be goalkeepers.

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D	Group E	Group F
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES	AUSTRALIA	KOREA REPUBLIC	ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN	SAUDI ARABIA	JAPAN
THAILAND	SYRIA	CHINA P.R.	IRAQ	QATAR	UZBEKISTAN
INDIA	PALESTINE	PHILIPPINES	VIETNAM	LEBANON	OMAN
BAHRAIN	JORDAN	KYRGYZ REPUBLIC	YEMEN	DPR KOREA	TURKMENISTAN

Fixtures :

Date & Time	Team 1	Match Count	Team 2	Stadium
5 January 2019 20:00	United Arab Emirates	Match 1	Bahrain	Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi
6 January 2019 15:00	Australia	Match 2	Jordan	Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
6 January 2019 17:30	Thailand	Match 3	India	Al Nahyan Stadium, Abu Dhabi
6 January 2019 20:00	Syria	Match 4	Palestine	Sharjah Stadium, Sharjah
7 January 2019 15:00	China PR	Match 5	Kyrgyzstan	Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
7 January 2019 17:30	South Korea	Match 6	Philippines	Al-Maktoum Stadium, Dubai
7 January 2019 20:00	Iran	Match 7	Yemen	Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
8 January 2019 17:30	Iraq	Match 8	Vietnam	Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi
8 January 2019 20:00	Saudi Arabia	Match 9	Lebanon	Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
9 January 2019 15:00	Japan	Match 10	Turkmenistan	Al Nahyan Stadium, Abu Dhabi
9 January 2019 17:30	Uzbekistan	Match 11	Oman	Sharjah Stadium, Sharjah
9 January 2019 20:00	Qatar	Match 12	Lebanon	Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
10 January 2019 15:00	Bahrain	Match 13	Thailand	Al-Maktoum Stadium, Dubai
10 January 2019 17:30	Jordan	Match 14	Syria	Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
10 January 2019 20:00	India	Match 15	United Arab Emirates	Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi
11 January 2019 15:00	Palestine	Match 16	Australia	Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium, Dubai
11 January 2019 17:30	Philippines	Match 17	China PR	Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
11 January 2019 20:00	Kyrgyzstan	Match 18	South Korea	Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
12 January 2019 15:00	Vietnam	Match 19	Iran	Al Nahyan Stadium, Abu Dhabi
12 January 2019 17:30	Yemen	Match 20	Iraq	Sharjah Stadium, Sharjah
12 January 2019 20:00	Lebanon	Match 21	Saudi Arabia	Al-Maktoum Stadium, Dubai
13 January 2019 15:00	North Korea	Match 22	Qatar	Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
13 January 2019 17:30	Oman	Match 23	Japan	Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi
13 January 2019 20:00	Turkmenistan	Match 24	Uzbekistan	Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium, Dubai
14 January 2019 20:00	United Arab Emirates	Match 25	Thailand	Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
14 January 2019 20:00	India	Match 26	Bahrain	Sharjah Stadium, Sharjah
15 January 2019 17:30	Australia	Match 27	Syria	Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
15 January 2019 17:30	Palestine	Match 28	Jordan	Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
16 January 2019 17:30	South Korea	Match 29	China PR	Al Nahyan Stadium, Abu Dhabi
16 January 2019 17:30	Kyrgyzstan	Match 30	Philippines	Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium, Dubai
16 January 2019 20:00	Vietnam	Match 31	Yemen	Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
16 January 2019 20:00	Iran	Match 32	Iraq	Al-Maktoum Stadium, Dubai
17 January 2019 17:30	Oman	Match 33	Turkmenistan	Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
17 January 2019 17:30	Japan	Match 34	Uzbekistan	Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
17 January 2019 20:00	Saudi Arabia	Match 35	Qatar	Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi
17 January 2019 20:00	Lebanon	Match 36	North Korea	Sharjah Stadium, Sharjah

*Timings mentioned above are according to Gulf Standard Time (GST).