Doha, January 07 (QNA) - The AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 winners will lift a trophy that signifies the continuous evolvement of Asia's most prestigious men's football tournament and carries Asia-related symbols.

The design unveiled in the UAE-staged 2019 edition, which was claimed by Qatar, was relevant to the increase in the number of participating teams to 24 for the first time, up from only four in the first-ever edition in 1956 in Hong Kong.

In the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023, scheduled from Jan. 12 to Feb. 10, 2024, 24 teams will be competing for the trophy designed and made by world renowned silversmiths Thomas Lyte of London.

AFC President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa hailed the new design as an attempt by AFC to keep with the new and exciting future of the competition and captures the excitement and drama of the tournament. He added that the new design goes in line with the progress and modernity that the world is witnessing in all fields.

The new trophy, 78cm high and 42cm wide, was handcrafted in over 450 hours including 230 hours of hammering flat sheets. Twelve craftsmen of various nationalities created the new design from 15 kilograms of Hallmarked Sterling Silver - an alloy combining 92.5-percent fine silver with 7.5 percent of other metals.

The design in the form of a Lotus Flower - an aquatic flower native to Asia - with its five petals, depicts the five regions of the AFC organically entwined in harmony and competition.

The AFC said the lotus flower was opted for to be associated with inspiring values and meanings of peace, unity, tolerance and harmony among the countries of the continent. The detachable trophy plinth contains the rich legacy of previous champions.

Defending champions Qatar will have their name engraved to the trophy plinth together with the other seven title holders - Japan (four titles), Saudi Arabia (three titles), Iran (three titles), South Korea (two titles), and Kuwait, Iraq and Australia with a single title each.

The logo of the tournament combines the trophy and the Qatari environment and culture. The logo features a silhouette of the trophy, with the trophy lines inspired from feathers of a falcon - a bird of historical importance to the State of Qatar, and petals of the lotus flower. The logo's top is colored in maroon, Qatar's national color, while its tail features an Arabic nuqta, a diacritic mark added to Arabic letters. (QNA)