The Beijing Youth Daily reported that due to the postponement of the 2026 U.S.-Canada-Mexico FIFA World Cup qualifying tournament for the 3rd stage of the Asian zone and the 18-team tournament to September this year, a new edition of the tournament, which was originally scheduled to be held in South Korea this July
East Asian cup
The soccer tournament will
postponement
to be held in July 2025, with the venue of the competition remaining unchanged.
Earlier this year, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) released the 2024 Chinese Football Competition Calendar, showing that the Chinese Super League will be suspended after the 19th round so that the Chinese men's football team can arrange a flight training session. The move was also made to allow time for training and matches for the new East Asian Cup soccer tournament.
The East Asian Football Confederation (EAFC) had originally planned to host the new East Asian Cup soccer tournament in July 2024, but this timeframe overlapped with the gap between the end of the 36-team Asian Zone of the 2026 Men's World Qualifying Tournament and the start of the 18-team tournament, and the tournament was postponed. The Japanese and South Korean football associations were more supportive of this, taking into account the need for teams to prepare for the 18-team tournament.
China is currently in 2nd place in the 36-team tournament and needs to beat Thailand in the 5th round of the tournament on June 6 to qualify for the tournament. If they fail to break through, the team will have no major tournaments to play in the next six months or so.
The EAFC has also decided that the 2028 and 2030 East Asian Cup Football Championships will be held in China in January 2028 and in Japan in January 2030, respectively.
