Sports are among the most influential activities in the world. Every discipline has its followers’ community: the Americas are fond of basketball, baseball, boxing, tennis, motor racing, and others; Europe is fencing’s home, Africa has the best runners in the planet, and Asia loves cricket. However, everywhere you go, soccer, or football, is being played at all levels.
Football is, undoubtedly, the most popular sport in the globe. From our early days until the moment we die, we are in continuous contact with a ball, a TV, or a device in which we can see the world’s biggest starts giving everything they have to achieve glory, win trophies and embark on a successful career doing what they love.
Football’s popularity has been on the rise for quite some time now, and the fever has reached Asia. Whereas the continent was more famous for its boxing, cricket, and baseball stars, not to mention karate, judo, and other combat sports, football is now a very big thing in the Middle East, Australia, Japan, South Korea, China, and Russia. It is still growing in other locations, as well.
Asian Cup: where only the best teams compete
That growth has made the continent’s most relevant national team competition, the Asian Cup, all the more competitive and prestigious. As football becomes more professional and widespread in Asian countries, the players’ skill level substantially rises.
The 2019 edition of the AFC Asian Cup is being played as we speak! The tournament began on January 5 and will end on February 1st, 2019. The venue for all matches is the United Arab Emirates.
The Cup is organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC,) and is played every four years. The 2019 edition is the 17th one. The UAE won the bidding for hosting the tournament on March 9, 2015, after defeating Iran.
This will be the first time in which the Asian Cup will be contested with 24 teams. From 2004, and until the last edition, in 2015, it was played with 16 teams. The squads will be divided into six groups of four teams each, and a total of 16 sides will qualify for the knockout stage.
Australia, the “Socceroos,” won the 2015 competition, which is remarkable because it spent years competing in weak Oceania, and managed to be crowned four years ago. The team that wins the 2019 edition of the Asian Cup will earn the right to participate in the 2021 Confederations Cup.
Groups and teams
Group A
- United Arab Emirates
- Thailand
- India
- Bahrain
Group B
- Australia
- Syria
- Palestine
- Jordan
Group C
- South Korea
- China PR
- Kyrgyzstan
- Philippines
Group D
- Iran
- Iraq
- Vietnam
- Yemen
Group E
- Saudi Arabia
- Qatar
- Lebanon
- North Korea
Group F
- Japan
- Uzbekistan
- Oman
- Turkmenistan
Venues
- Zayed Sports City Stadium (Abu Dhabi)
- Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium (Abu Dhabi)
- Al Nahyan Stadium (Abu Dhabi)
- Rashid Stadium (Dubai)
- Al-Maktoum Stadium (Dubai)
- Hazza bin Zayed Stadium (Al Ain)
- Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium (Al Ain)
- Sharjah Stadium (Sharjah)
Broadcasting at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup
People can watch the 2019 AFC Asian Cup live online or via cable/satellite television. The competition is broadcast live by at least 80 TV channels across the globe. The expected audience is 2.5 billion people. Here are the TV stations with broadcasting rights (most of them have their online streaming sites):
Country or Territory Channel
Middle East and North Africa beIN Sports
Asia-Pacific Fox Sports Asia
Afghanistan Lemar TV
Australia Fox Sports
Balkan Countries Arena Sport
Cambodia BTV News
China CCTV, Star Sports
India Star Sports
Iran IRIB TV3, Varzesh
Japan TV Asahi, NHK BS1
Kyrgyzstan KTRK Sport
Lebanon Télé Liban
Qatar Al Kass
South Korea JTBC, JTBC3 Fox Sports
Syria Syria Sport TV
Tajikistan Futbol FFT, Varzish TV
Thailand Channel 7
Turkmenistan Turkmenistan Sport
Uzbekistan MTRK Sport
Vietnam VTV, VTC
Defeating geo-blocks with a VPN
If you live in any of the countries in which a channel has been awarded broadcasting rights, you will surely be able to watch the 2019 AFC Asian Cup live online. However, what if you are a Japanese expat living in Spain, and don’t want to miss all the action?
For people that live outside any of the mentioned countries with broadcasting rights, watching the 2019 Asian Cup live online will not be possible with outside help because of geo-blocking. The platforms named above are only available for local audiences, which means that the person living in Spain won’t be able to freely enjoy TV Asahi or NHK BS1 because of his/her geographical location dictates otherwise.
To circumvent the geo-block and watch the AFC Asian Cup 2019 live online from anywhere, a VPN is needed. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are content encryption tools that let the user hide its reallocation and borrow an IP address from a country of its selection, provided it is available in the brand’s catalog.
VPNs are made with privacy and security in mind since they provide the user the chance to browse the web anonymously and dodge hackers, cybercriminals, directed and behavior-based online advertising, censorship, surveillance, spying, copyright trolls, malware developers, and more.
However, and since they can hide the person’s IP number and lend it one for temporary use, VPNs are also excellent unblocking resources. If you are, for instance, in the United States, Colombia, or South Africa, all you need to do is connect to a server from one of the countries hosting an online streaming platform with broadcasting rights, and you will be able to watch the AFC Asian Cup 2019 live online without any geographical restrictions.
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| Best VPN |  | $5 a month (code "best10VPN") | 9.9 |  |
| Good VPN |  | $9 a month | 8.9 | |
| Decent VPN |  | $6.95 a month | 8.8 | |
TorGuard: the best VPN to watch the AFC Asian Cup 2019 live online
To defeat geo-blocks, you need a VPN with robust encryption, high speeds, proper content protection measures, and most importantly, a broad server park. Fortunately, TorGuard offers those traits, and then some. It’s our top rated VPN out of 50 VPNs!
The American brand has more than 3,000 servers in 55 nations, including most of the list of countries with broadcasting rights to show the best games of the Asian competition. It is speedy, reliable, with excellent customer support, and solid platform compatibility.
TorGuard costs $10 per month, a more than affordable figure if you take into account the fact that you have multiple protocols at your disposal (OpenVPN TCP and UDP, L2TP/IPSec, SSTP, PPTP, OpenConnect, STunnel, and Squid,) and the ability to connect five simultaneous devices.
How to watch the AFC Asian Cup 2019 live online from anywhere
- Choose a speedy VPN with robust encryption and lots of servers and countries
- Go to that VPN’s website
- Sign up for the VPN service, providing the necessary personal information and a payment method
- After choosing your plan and registering, create your username and password
- Download and install the VPN app on your device
- Launch the VPN app
- Sign in to your VPN account
- Connect to a server from a country with a platform holding broadcasting rights
- Open the streaming site or platform and watch the AFC Asian Cup 2019 live online from anywhere
In conclusion, soccer is an exciting competition, and if you are a hardcore fan, you surely won’t want to miss any relevant tournament. To watch the 2019 AFC Asian Cup live online from anywhere, a VPN is a fantastic idea.
