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The China Football Association(CFA) has elected not to pursue a bid to host the 2019 Asian Cup due to other commitments.
“Having now undertaken integrated consideration of various factors and the overall arrangements for future work and coordination with the relevant parties, the Chinese Football Association decided not to bid for the Asian Cup tournament,” CFA said in a statement.
China last staged the tournament in 2004 and was in the running to host the 2019 event after they notified the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) about its desire. However, the country has now exited the race leaving Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Iran and Thailand as the remaining nations in contention.
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China will be the fourth country to pull out of the race after Lebanon, Malaysia and Myanmar also withdrew their candidacies.
The decision will be made in AFC’s general assembly in July 2014. The previous edition was staged by Qatar in 2011 with Australian due to host the next in 2015.
