Beijing, Sep 16 (IANS): Construction and renovation work on 10 ten professional football stadia for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup has been accelerated, the organizing committee said on Tuesday.

The 2023 AFC Asian Cup, which is scheduled to kick off in June, will be held in professional football stadia in 10 host cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Chengdu, Xian, Dalian, Qingdao, Xiamen, and Suzhou, where the renovation and construction of all venues have made significant progress, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the organizing committee, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) confirmed the design schemes from all the host cities except Beijing on Tuesday.

The plans from the nine host cities fully meet the requirements of the Asian Cup venues, laying a solid foundation for high-quality and high-standard venue construction, said the AFC, adding the next phase is to ensure the construction could be complete as planned.

The capital city in China held a meeting on Tuesday to review the designing scheme of Beijing Workers Stadium renovation, with plans for this to be submitted to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in late September.

"The design of Beijing Workers Stadium considers not only the Asian Cup but also other important events and the daily operation of the club. Some of the designs even go beyond the AFC standard," said Zhu Xiaodi, chief architect of Beijing Institute of Architecture Design.

In addition, the Shanghai Pudong Football Stadium has been put into service on Tuesday. The stadium, with 33,765 seats, will make its debut at the final of the 10th season of League of Legends (LPL) World Championship, known as S10, on October 31.

"Despite the influence of COVID-19 pandemic, all the host cities have been working hard to speed up venue construction. I believe the construction of ten professional stadiums will be completed by the end of 2022," noted Shi Qiang, secretary-general of the organizing committee.