In an Oct. 6 dispatch, Beijing Youth Daily revealed that the Chinese national team has confirmed that it will compete for the 2023 Asian Cup tournament grouping as a second-tier team.
On the same day, FIFA unveiled the latest edition of its member associations' men's soccer team ranking list. The Chinese team slipped to 79th place from 78th in the previous edition, but we are still firmly in 11th place in the AFC ranking.
It is planned that the AFC will announce the venue for the next Asian Cup on the 17th of this month. If the tournament is held in South Korea, it will likely be scheduled for June or July next year. As a rule, the AFC usually conducts the group draw about six months before the tournament opens, so the draw is likely to take place at the end of this year.
The year-end rankings of the FIFA Member Association representative teams will be revealed on December 22nd. At this point, it seems unlikely that any of the other AFC Member Association teams (national teams) will be playing international warm-ups during the World Cup, with the exception of Iran, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, who will be participating in the Qatar World Cup, and are therefore unlikely to see a change in their ranking points. As a result, there is a high probability that China will remain 11th in Asia in the year-end rankings, thus earning the opportunity to participate in the Asian Cup draw as a second-tier team.
