KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Qatar will stage next year's Asian Cup in place of original hosts China after seeing off rival bids from South Korea and Indonesia, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced on Monday. The continental championships were awarded to China in 2019 but the world's most populous country relinquished the rights earlier this year as it pursued a zero-COVID policy. The AFC reopened the bidding process and Qatar, which will host the World Cup finals from next month, was preferred to bids from South Korea and Indonesia at an executive committee meeting on Monday.   "Qatar's capabilities and track record in hosting major international sporting events and their meticulous attention to detail are well admired throughout the globe," AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said in a statement. "With their existing world-class infrastructure and unrivalled hosting capabilities, we are confident that Qatar will stage a worthy spectacle befitting the prestige and stature of Asia's crown jewel." Qatar has staged the Asian Cup twice before in 1988 and 2011 and won the last edition in the United Arab Emirates in 2019.