The Chinese men's national football team has been drawn to face Iran, Syria and Kyrgyzstan in Group C of the 2027 AFC Asian Cup.

The 19th edition of Asia's premier football tournament is set to be held in Saudi Arabia from Jan 7 to Feb 5 next year. It will be the first edition of the event to be hosted by the kingdom. The draw ceremony took place in Riyadh on Saturday night.

Ranked in the third pot based on the latest FIFA rankings, China is poised to face tough challenges in the group stage. The 24 participating teams are divided into four pots of six teams each, with the top two in each group and the four best third-placed teams advancing to the round-of-16, followed by knockout matches to decide the champion. To date, 23 of the 24 spots have been confirmed, with the final spot to be contested between Lebanon and Yemen.

China's head coach Shao Jiayi said his team faced a challenging group: "Iran has always been one of Asia's top teams, Syria has made rapid progress in recent years, and Kyrgyzstan has maintained steady growth among Central Asian teams.

"We will definitely prepare hard for the tournament and strive for a good performance," he said.

China's ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chang Hua said he hoped Chinese fans will travel to the tournament: "We look forward to the Chinese team's good performance in this Asian Cup and hope more Chinese fans will come to the beautiful Saudi Arabia to enjoy the wonderful games and experience the local natural scenery and customs."

Some ticket sales for the tournament opened on Sunday via the Ahlan website and app, with full general sale from Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia also used Saturday's draw to launch the tournament's "Ahlan Asia" campaign — an Arabic phrase meaning "Welcome Asia" — as the kingdom prepares to host fans from across the continent in Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar.

The hosting of the Asian Cup forms part of the kingdom's wider investment in sports under Vision 2030. Since 2018, Saudi Arabia has hosted more than 150 international sporting events, welcoming over 3.5 million fans, while participation and development pathways for football have expanded significantly nationwide.

"The kingdom has demonstrated time and again its ability to stage world-class events, and we have every confidence that the 2027 edition will set a new benchmark for Asian football," said Asian Football Confederation President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa.