Covid-19: China gives up organizing the Asian Football Cup due to the pandemic

China has given up the organization of the 2023 Asian Football Cup due to "

", the Asian Confederation (AFC) announced in a statement on Saturday.

The Asian giant, struggling with an epidemic outbreak, has already canceled or recently postponed the organization of multiple competitions on its soil, in particular the Asian Games scheduled for September in Hangzhou (east).

The Asian Cup, which brings together 24 teams, was to take place in ten Chinese cities in June-July 2023. The AFC did not specify which would be the new host country.

Largely spared for two years, China is facing its worst epidemic outbreak since the spring of 2020. To deal with it, it is pursuing its “zero Covid” strategy, which results in confinements and quarantines as soon as a few cases appear.

The 25 million inhabitants of Shanghai (East) have been confined since the beginning of April.

Read alsoCovid-19: the 2022 Asian Games postponed indefinitely in China

Several sporting events canceled

Before the pandemic, the country had risen to prominence in sport since the 2000s, organizing a Formula 1 Grand Prix in Shanghai, the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, various world championships or tennis tournaments.

But with the exception of the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, held in February-March in a health bubble, China has not hosted any major international competition since the start of the epidemic, in order to avoid any epidemic outbreak. .

The Diamond League athletics meetings scheduled for Shanghai (July 30) and Shenzen (August 6), the Shanghai Formula 1 GP and the men's (ATP) and women's (WTA) tennis tournaments have thus been canceled. .