{"id":1658,"date":"2025-04-12T04:51:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T04:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/?p=1658"},"modified":"2025-04-12T04:56:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T04:56:21","slug":"india-submits-bid-to-host-2031-afc-asian-cup-faces-stiff-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/?p=1658","title":{"rendered":"India Submits Bid to Host 2031 AFC Asian Cup, Faces Stiff Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">India has officially submitted its <em>Expression of Interest (EoI)<\/em> to host the <strong>2031 AFC Asian Cup<\/strong>, marking another bold step by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to bring top-tier international football to the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AIFF Deputy Secretary General M Satyanarayan confirmed the development, saying, <em>\u201cYes, we have submitted the EoI to host the 2031 AFC Asian Cup. Let us see how it goes.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">India is among <strong>seven nations<\/strong> that submitted bids before the March 31 deadline. The list includes football heavyweights <strong>Australia, South Korea, United Arab Emirates<\/strong>, along with <strong>Indonesia, Kuwait<\/strong>, and a <strong>joint bid<\/strong> from <strong>Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of these, Australia, UAE, South Korea, and Kuwait have previously hosted the tournament, making the competition for hosting rights intense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <strong>Asian Football Confederation (AFC)<\/strong>, which opened the bidding process on November 27, 2024, received what President <strong>Shaikh Salman<\/strong> called the <em>\u201chighest ever number of Expressions of Interest in modern history\u201d<\/em>, highlighting the tournament&#8217;s growing global significance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cThe unprecedented level of interest we have witnessed reflects both the high ambitions of the AFC\u2019s Member Associations and their increasing confidence in their own capabilities to host such a significant tournament,\u201d<\/em> Salman said during the AFC Executive Committee meeting in Kuala Lumpur ahead of the 35th AFC Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The next step in the selection process will include a bidding workshop later this month. Participating nations will then submit detailed bid documentation, followed by an extensive evaluation by the AFC. The final host will be selected by the <strong>AFC Congress in 2026<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If selected, <strong>India will automatically qualify<\/strong> for the 24-team tournament. Historically, India\u2019s best performance came in <strong>1964<\/strong> when they finished as <strong>runners-up<\/strong>. Since then, the team has struggled in the group stages \u2014 bowing out early in the <strong>1984, 2011, 2019<\/strong>, and <strong>2023<\/strong> editions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">India has <strong>never hosted<\/strong> the AFC Asian Cup. Previous attempts to bring the tournament to Indian soil \u2014 for the 2023 and 2027 editions \u2014 were withdrawn. The 2027 bid was pulled in <strong>December 2022<\/strong>, shortly after <strong>Kalyan Chaubey<\/strong> took over as AIFF President, citing that <em>hosting major events was not a strategic priority<\/em> at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That decision cleared the way for <strong>Saudi Arabia<\/strong> to become the sole host of the 2027 tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the current EoI for 2031, India is once again in contention to stage <strong>Asia\u2019s premier men\u2019s football competition<\/strong>, reflecting renewed ambition to grow the sport domestically and on the continental stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India has officially submitted its Expression of Interest (EoI) to host the 2031 AFC Asian Cup, marking another bold step by the All India Football Federation&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1658","post","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1660,"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1658\/revisions\/1660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}