The host nation qualified for the final tournament automatically, while the remaining 23 places were determined among the other 45 national teams of the AFC through a qualifying competition running from 2015 to 2018, part of which also served as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process for the confederation.

Defending champions Australia were eliminated in the quarter-finals by the hosts United Arab Emirates, who subsequently lost to eventual winners Qatar in the semi-finals.

[7] In January 2015, AFC general secretary Alex Soosay said that Iran and the United Arab Emirates were the only two remaining bidders for the 2019 Asian Cup, and that the eventual hosts would be announced in March 2015.

[8] On 9 March 2015, during an AFC Executive Committee meeting in Manama, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates was announced as the host.

In addition to Yemen, Kyrgyzstan[16] and the Philippines[17] also marked this edition as their first times to qualify for an Asian Cup.

Afghanistan, along with its fellow CAFA member nation Tajikistan, were the only two countries from the Central Asian zone which failed to qualify for the tournament.

[21] Four renowned Asian players: Ali Daei, Sun Jihai, Sunil Chhetri, and Phil Younghusband were chosen to draw the teams.

[34][35] India finished last in the group after they recorded their first win in the Asian Cup for 55 years over Thailand in their opening match, before losing their remaining two games.

[37] This was followed up by a 2–0 win over Syria which saw Syrian manager Bernd Stange sacked after the match and being replaced by Fajr Ibrahim.

[41] This meant that South Korea finished without conceding a goal after previously getting two 1–0 wins over the Philippines and Kyrgyzstan.

[42][43] In the battle for third place, it was between two newcomers to the competition, with Kyrgyzstan getting their first win in an Asian competition with a hat-trick from Vitalij Lux, securing a 3–1 win for the central Asian team despite a late consolation goal from Stephan Schröck, which was the first Philippine goal in the tournament.

[45] Iran finished top of the group on goal difference, largely in part to their 5–0 defeat of debutantes Yemen in their first game, which included a double from Mehdi Taremi.

[47] Iraq had a tougher game in their opener against Vietnam, with only a late 90th-minute goal from Ali Adnan securing them three points.

[50] Qatar began their campaign with a comfortable, albeit controversial, 2–0 win over Lebanon,[51] before beating North Korea 6–0, sealing their place in the knockout stage.

[52] Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia opened their account with a 4–0 win over North Korea,[53] before booking a place to the next round by beating Lebanon 2–0.

[64] Saad Al Sheeb Shūichi Gonda Alireza Beiranvand Abdelkarim Hassan Bassam Al-Rawi Boualem Khoukhi Yuto Nagatomo Maya Yoshida Bandar Al-Ahbabi Kim Min-jae Abdulaziz Hatem Hassan Al-Haydos Gaku Shibasaki Ashkan Dejagah Omid Ebrahimi Tom Rogic Almoez Ali Akram Afif Yuya Osako Sardar Azmoun Ali Mabkhout Wu Lei Nguyễn Quang Hải The official logo of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup was unveiled on 23 January 2017 in Abu Dhabi during the drawing ceremony for the third round of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification.

The interlacing hexagon pattern of the logo was inspired from Islamic art, as well as the old Emirati tradition of using palm leaves, locally known as saf, in weaving.

[66] The slogan, "Bringing Asia Together" (Arabic: جمع آسيا معاً), was unveiled on 5 January 2018, a year before the tournament's kick-off.

ESPN5 made a "competitive bid" to broadcast the tournament on free-to-air television in the Philippines, but it was not accepted by the AFC.

[83][84] In the Middle East, where Qatar-based BeIN Sports has rights to broadcast the Asian Cup in the region, BeoutQ (allegedly backed by Saudi Arabia) also illegally broadcast the tournament as part of a proxy conflict in a diplomatic crisis between Qatar and various Arab states.

The organizing committee issued a statement for the reasons of closure stating “Ahead of kick-off a large crowd of fans with and without tickets had gathered over a short period of time outside the stadium, which resulted in the need to secure the area."

[95] According to a report, Saoud al-Mohannadi, a Qatari national who is the AFC vice-president and chairman of the organizing committee for the Asian Cup, was unable to enter the UAE two days prior to the tournament's start because Emirati authorities had not yet cleared him.

[100] According to Al Jazeera, the final match, which was won by Qatar, was played "almost entirely without" Qatari support from the stands, due to the travel ban.

[101] However, according to Qatar-based The Peninsula large number of Omani fans supported the Qatari team in the stadium, stating "The large number of fans who supported the Qatari team were wearing the logo of Al Annabi [The Maroons] with the background of the names of various players.

Apart from their attendance, they carried flags in the stadium and continued to cheer for Al Annabi [The Maroons] players and sing songs throughout the game.

One of the Qatari players, Salem Al Hajri, was struck on the head with a shoe after Qatar scored its third goal.

[105][107] On 30 January 2019, soon after the hosts lost to Qatar in the semi-finals, the United Arab Emirates Football Association lodged a formal appeal to the AFC over the eligibility of Sudanese-born Almoez Ali and Iraqi-born Bassam Al-Rawi, claiming that they did not qualify to play for Qatar on residency grounds per Article 7 of the Regulations Governing the Application of the FIFA statutes, which states a player is eligible to play for a representative team if he has "lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant association".

[109] Only hours prior to the start of the final on 1 February 2019, the AFC Disciplinary and Ethics Committee announced that it had dismissed the protest lodged by the UAEFA.

[112][113][114][115] In an interview with Sky News, he claimed he was beaten, starved, and deprived of sleep by the police for wearing a Qatar shirt.

An official in the UAE embassy in London stated “He was categorically not arrested for wearing a Qatar football shirt.