AFC Approves Qualifiers Dates for World Cup Qatar 2022 and Asian Cup China 2023

Kuala Lumpur, November 11 (QNA) - The Asian Football Confederation's (AFC) Competitions Committee have approved the dates for the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and the AFC Asian Cup China 2023 at their third meeting for the 2019-2023 cycle, which was held online and chaired by Dr. Tran Quoc Tuan. The Committee agreed that all the Asian Qualifiers Round 2 matches should be completed by June 15, 2021 with Match Day 7 and 8 in March 2021 and Match Day 9 and 10 in June 2021 with the Final Round of the Asian Qualifiers beginning in September 2021. It was agreed, in collaboration with FIFA, that the 10 match days of the Asian Qualifiers Final Round should be finished by the end of March 2022 with the Asian and Inter-Continental Play-offs proposed for the FIFA Window May/June in 2022. The Asian Play-off for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 is proposed as a single match. The AFC U23 Asian Cup 2022 bidding process was also agreed. The tournament was originally scheduled for China in 2022 as a preparatory competition ahead of the AFC Asian Cup 2023 but the Chinese Football Association (CFA) has now informed the AFC they are no longer able to stage the tournament. (QNA)