On January 29th, the United Arab Emirates, the host country of the 2023 West Asia Cup, officially announced that the East Asian team Thailand will be invited to participate in the 2023 West Asia Cup. This is also the first time for the Thai team to participate in the West Asia Cup.
It is reported that the time for the 2023 West Asia Cup has been determined. The start time is March 20, 2023, and the closing time is April 2, 2023. It will last for 12 days and the venue will be in the United Arab Emirates. There are a total of 12 participating teams in this West Asian Cup, including the host United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Lebanon, Kuwait, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Oman, as well as an East Asian team Thailand. It is worth mentioning that Thailand, as an East Asian team, will participate in the West Asia Cup for the first time.
The West Asia Cup has been held nine times so far. The Iranian team has won the championship four times, and five teams from Bahrain, Qatar, Syria, Kuwait and Iraq have won the championship once each.
There is the West Asian Cup, and naturally there is also the East Asian Cup, but the East Asian Cup is usually attended by China, Japan, and South Korea, and then invites another East Asian or Southeast Asian team. It should be pointed out that the Thai team has just won the 2022 Southeast Asian Cup. This is also the seventh time in the history of the Thai team to win the Southeast Asian Cup.
For the Thai team, being able to participate in Spain is also a very good training opportunity. In recent years, the football level of the Thai team has been continuously improved. This time, participating in the West Asia Cup can play against the strong teams in West Asia. This will also accumulate a lot of valuable game experience for the future Asian Cup and World Preliminaries. It is worth mentioning that the Thai team once defeated the Chinese men’s football team 5-1.