The Socceroos will discover their path to Asian Cup glory on Tuesday night (9pm AEST) when the draw for next year’s tournament takes place.
The tournament had been set to run in China in June-July this year, but Covid-19 forced the Asian Football Confederation to move the competition to Qatar – and subsequently reschedule the competition to January-February 2024 due to temperatures.
The draw will be held in Katara Opera House in Doha, with Socceroos head coach Graham Arnold set to attend.
A host of legendary Asian footballers will conduct the draw, where the 24 teams will be split into six groups of four teams.
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The draw takes place by a relatively straightforward process. The teams have been split into four Pots based on their FIFA world rankings.
Australia is currently ranked 29th in the world, the fourth-highest ranking among Asian teams, and therefore has been placed in Pot 1.
Each group will comprise of one team from each pot.
Australia will therefore play one team from Pot 2 (world rankings from No. 67 Iran to No. 84 Jordan, one from Pot 3 (rankings from No. 85 Bahrain to No. 99 Lebanon), and one team from Pot 4 (rankings from No. 101 India to No. 149 Indonesia).
Qatar, as hosts, were placed in Pot 1 and will be automatically assigned to Group A – meaning they will play the opening game of the tournament on January 12.
Australia famously won the 2015 tournament on home soil, but fell flat as defending champions in 2019 despite being second highest ranked among the competitors.
The Socceroos struggled in the group stages that tournament, losing to Jordan before needing a stoppage-time goal from Tom Rogic to secure automatic qualification to the knockout stages.
Australia only progressed past Uzbekistan in the Round of 16 on penalties after the game was scoreless after both regular and added time, before losing 1-0 to United Arab Emirates in the quarterfinals.
This time around, the Aussies are again among the favourites, particularly on the back of their impressive success at the 2022 World Cup. Returning to the site of that best-ever World Cup showing, newly re-signed coach Graham Arnold will be hopeful of following in the footsteps of Ange Postecoglou by guiding the Socceroos to continental silverware.
Follow the draw from 9pm AEST in our live blog below!
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POT 1
Qatar (61) (hosts)
Japan (20)
Iran (24)
South Korea (27)
Australia (29)
Saudi Arabia (54)
POT 2
Iraq (67)
United Arab Emirates (72)
Oman (73)
Uzbekistan (74)
China (81)
Jordan (84)
POT 3
Bahrain (85)
Syria (90)
Palestine (93)
Vietnam (95)
Kyrgyzstan (96)
Lebanon (99)
POT 4
India (101)
Tajikistan (109)
Thailand (114)
Malaysia (138)
Hong Kong (147)
Indonesia (149)
THE TOURNAMENT
AFC president Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said the successful hosting of the 2022 World Cup by Qatar proves this Asian Cup will be: “a true spectacle never before experienced in Asian football history.”
“We have every faith that they will showcase their unrivalled hosting capabilities, state-of-the-art infrastructure and warm hospitality,” he added in a statement last week.
Six of the eight stadiums for the tournament hosted World Cup matches last year – Only the 80,000-seat Lusail, which hosted the World Cup final, and the temporary Stadium 974 comprised partially of shipping containers, will not be in use. Two smaller stadiums in Doha replace those two World Cup arenas.
The top two teams from the six groups proceed to the knockout stages, while the four best third-placed teams also reach the knockouts. The final takes place on February 10.
LIVE BLOG
Follow the draw from 9pm AEST in our live blog below! If you can’t see the blog, click here.
