Host the competition to lay a better foundation for development

The reporter reported coldly On April 14, the AFC announced that China has successfully won the right to host the U17 Women's Asian Cup for three consecutive years from 2026 to 2028. As an important part of the development strategy of the Chinese Football Association, China has made new progress in bidding for international football competitions. It is a pity that the Chinese Football Association failed to win the hosting rights of the U17 men's Asian Cup at the same time.

In the future, China will continue to push forward its bid to host international football competitions, and the Chinese Football Association has expressed its intention to bid for the 2027 U20 Asian Cup. The U17 and U20 Men's and Women's Football World Cups, especially the Asian Cup, the AFC Champions League finals, and even the Club World Cup and the World Cup, are the goals of the Chinese Football Association. At the competitive level, it will provide opportunities for the men's and women's national football teams of all age groups to experience in competitions, and accelerate the development of the domestic football industry at the economic level, which will lay a better foundation for the future development of Chinese football. It's just that in recent years, there are not many intercontinental competitions left for China to bid for, and the Chinese Football Association needs to start bidding as soon as possible and go all out.

Since the end of the epidemic, China has made breakthroughs in hosting major international football competitions. After Shenzhen hosted the 2025 U20 Men's Asian Cup and Wuhan hosted the 2025 Women's AFC Champions League semifinals, China's third successful bid to host the tournament - the third consecutive U17 Women's Asian Cup from 2026 to 2028 is confirmed to be held in China.

In addition to multi-sport events such as the Asian Games, the last time China hosted a football continental event was the 2025 U20 Men's Asian Cup. The last time China hosted the senior football continental tournament was the 2010 Women's Asian Cup.

In the strategic development plan of the Chinese Football Association, hosting football competitions above the continental level is an important means to promote the development of domestic football. Modern and large-capacity professional football stadiums in China are constantly being put into use, and hosting international football competitions can make full use of these stadiums and generate greater economic value. In addition, what is more important at this stage is that hosting football competitions above the continental level can allow the national teams of all age groups in the trough to get more experience in the tournament and increase the probability of entering the World Cup of each age group.

Since FIFA founded the U17 Women's World Cup in 2008, the U17 women's national junior team has only qualified for three times in the previous eight tournaments, all of which were after finishing third in the U16 Women's Asian Junior Championship/U17 Women's Asian Cup.

From this year onwards, the U17 men's and women's World Cups will be changed to once a year, the men's football team will be expanded to 48 teams, and Asia will have 8 qualifying places; The women's football team has expanded to 24 teams, and Asia has 4 qualifying places. The Chinese U17 women's football team will participate in this year's Morocco U17 Women's World Cup, and this time it will participate in the U17 Women's World Cup again after 3 years, not through the U17 Women's Asian Cup, but according to the comprehensive results of the 3 Women's Asian Cups in 2017, 2019 and 2024.

Starting next year, the U17 Women's Asian Cup will be held in China for three consecutive years, and the Chinese U17 women's football team has the advantage of being the host, and the possibility of entering the semi-finals of the Asian Cup and directly qualifying for the World Cup has greatly increased.

As China's football development strategy has been fully tilted towards youth football, future bids will give priority to youth intercontinental competitions, such as the U20 Men's and Women's Asian Cup, the U23 Men's Asian Cup, and even the U17 and U20 Men's and Women's World Cups. If it wants to improve its experience in senior national football competitions and the possibility of advancing to world-class competitions, China will still strive to host adult continental competitions such as the Asian Cup, World Cup or Club World Cup in the future.

Recently, China has successfully bid to host three major Asian football tournaments, but it is not the top Asian tournament such as the men's and women's Asian Cup and the final stage of the men's and women's AFC Champions League. To make efforts at the bidding level, it is necessary to be clear how many opportunities there are for the competition to bid.

The hosting rights of the U17 Women's Asian Cup in the next three years were handed over to China, and the hosting rights of the U17 Men's Asian Cup in the next three years were handed over to Saudi Arabia. The three consecutive U17 Men's Asian Cups from 2026 to 2028, the 2026 U23 Men's Asian Cup, the 2027 Men's Asian Cup, and the quarterfinals of the 2024/25 and 2025/26 AFC Champions League Elite League are all hosted by Saudi Arabia. The 2026 and 2029 Women's Asian Cup were won by Australia and Uzbekistan. The hosting rights of the 2030 and 2034 Asian Games were won by Doha, Qatar and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, respectively.

March 31 is the application deadline for the 2031 men's Asian Cup, and the Chinese Football Association chose not to bid. Given that the men's Asian Cup has been held in West Asia for three consecutive years, the 2031 men's Asian Cup will be hosted outside of West Asia. South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, and India in the East Asian region have all submitted bids, as well as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan in Central Asia, and the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait in West Asia have also submitted bids. Theoretically, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and the Central Asian tripartite pair, which have a very low success rate in bidding for the 2031 men's Asian Cup, insisted on bidding because the AFC revealed that it might determine the right to host the 2031 and 2035 Asian Cups at the same time. If the AFC finally makes such a decision, China's bid to host the men's Asian Cup will have to wait until 2039 at the earliest.

The U17 Men's and Women's World Cup will host the U17 Men's and Women's World Cup for five consecutive years from 2025 to 2029, with Qatar and Morocco winning the right to host the World Cup for five consecutive years, and China will not be able to bid until 2030 at the earliest.

The only continental competitions that China may successfully bid for in recent years are the U20 Men's and Women's Asian Cup, the U23 Men's Asian Cup and the U20 Men's and Women's World Cup. These tournaments are currently held every two years. At present, the Chinese Football Association has expressed its intention to bid for the 2027 U20 Asian Cup. If you want to bid for the 2027 U20 Men's World Cup, as well as the 2028 U20 Women's Asian Cup, U23 Men's Asian Cup and U20 Women's World Cup, you need to start preparing in advance. Judging from the current trend, the U20 Men's and Women's Football World Cup will inevitably be expanded in the future and changed to one session per year, and the host country is likely to follow the precedent of packaging bids for five consecutive sessions.

The 2034 Men's World Cup will be hosted by Saudi Arabia, and according to current rules, China's earliest bid to host it will not be until 2046. As a "World Cup test match", the Club World Cup is basically hosted by the organizers of the World Cup, and China will have a chance as soon as 2045. The results of the 2031 and 2035 FIFA World Cup bids will be announced together next year. In view of the fact that only the United States and Mexico and the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland FA) are the only bidders for the two Women's World Cups, there is no suspense about the organizers, and China's earliest bid will have to wait until 2039.