Underlining its steadfast and continued efforts to elevate the stature and standards of the women’s game across Asia, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has confirmed today the introduction of several key reforms to its Women’s National Team Competitions, which will come into effect from 2026 onwards.

Officially ratified by the AFC Executive Committee on Thursday, these key reforms will result in the optimisation of the qualification pathways for both the AFC Women’s Asian Cup™ and FIFA Women’s World Cup, as well as a more straightforward qualification format for the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament.

They also extend to the age-group level, with both the AFC U17 Women’s Asian Cup™ and AFC U20 Women’s Asian Cup™ to undergo changes to their qualification formats, with the number of teams in the final tournaments to be increased at the same time.

The recommendations were first raised during the AFC Women’s Football Committee meeting in August 2023, with detailed proposals being presented at the AFC Women’s Football Committee Online Briefing last month.

The reforms aim to maximise the use of the international match calendar to benefit player release and welfare, increase and create an equal number of match opportunities for all teams over each four-year cycle, improve the competitive balance, and also generate opportunities for Member Associations to build up their hosting capacity and local fan base.

AFC Women’s Asian Cup™ Qualifiers

Qualification for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup™ will take place over two rounds, both to be played in a single round-robin, centralised format. This replaces the current single-round format, which also grants automatic qualification to the Finals for the top three finishers of the previous edition; automatic qualification for the host nation of the Finals will remain in place.

Round 1 will feature participating teams ranked ninth and below in the FIFA Women’s World Ranking. Subject to the number of entries, the AFC aims to draw teams into eight groups of three or four, with the top 16 teams progressing to Round 2.

They will be joined by the top eight FIFA-ranked sides and the 24-strong cast will be divided into six groups of four teams.

The winner of each group and the five best second-placed teams – a total of 11 teams – will advance to the Finals of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup™, where they will be joined by the host team. Depending on the ranking of the host team and the number of entries, Qualification Rounds 1 and 2 will be adjusted as necessary.

The new qualifying format will commence after the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026™, for the 2029 edition in Uzbekistan.

FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifiers

For the first time in Asia, the FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifiers will be a standalone competition, with AFC representatives for previous editions being decided via the AFC Women’s Asian Cup™ or Asian Games.

The new format takes place over three rounds, starting with the bottom-ranked teams – based on the FIFA Women’s World Ranking – in Round 1. Subject to the number of entries, these teams will be grouped to compete in a single round-robin, centralised league format. The top teams, based on the group results, will advance to Round 2.

Round 2 will feature 24 teams, including higher-ranked teams that were granted direct entry to this stage. Six groups of four teams will be formed to contest a single round-robin, centralised league format. The first and second-placed teams from each group – 12 in total – will advance to Round 3.

In Round 3, three groups of four teams will compete in a home and away league format. Subject to the FIFA Women’s World Cup slot allocation, teams in Round 3 can qualify directly or have a second opportunity to qualify via a playoff round.

Women's Olympic Football Tournament Qualifiers

The Asian Qualifiers for the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament will commence after the completion of each AFC Women’s Asian Cup™ in a single stage, replacing the current three-round standalone format.

The top eight finishers of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup™ (i.e. all Quarter-finalists) will battle for the right to reach the Olympic Games. The teams will be divided into two groups of four teams and play a round-robin, home-and-away league format, with the winner of each group taking their place at the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament.

AFC U20 Women’s Asian Cup™

Following FIFA’s decision to expand the biennial FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup from 16 to 24 teams, starting from 2024, the AFC now receives four direct qualifying slots. These are allocated to the top four finishers of the AFC U20 Women’s Asian Cup™.

Currently, qualification for the AFC U20 Women’s Asian Cup™ takes place over two rounds, with eight teams eventually competing in the Finals.

The reformed pathway will comprise a single qualifying round consisting of four to seven groups of five to six teams each, subject to number of entries. The top 11 teams will seal their berths at the Finals alongside the automatically qualified hosts to form an expanded 12-team AFC U20 Women’s Asian Cup™, where the four Semi-finalists will qualify for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.

This format allows the Qualifiers and Finals to fit into the AFC competitions calendar, and grants opportunities to more teams to qualify for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.

AFC U17 Women’s Asian Cup™

The FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup has also been expanded to 24 teams, starting from the 2025 edition. Four direct slots are allocated for the AFC’s representatives for the competition, which will be held on an annual basis instead of biennially, beginning in 2025.

As such, the AFC U17 Women’s Asian Cup™ will also take place every year and undergo an expansion from eight to 12 teams from 2026 onwards, with the four Semi-finalists booking their FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup places.

The current two-round qualification format will be condensed into a single round of four to seven groups of five to six teams each, subject to the number of entries. The top seven teams will advance to the Finals, alongside the top four finishers of the previous edition and the automatically qualified hosts.

In line with FIFA’s new approach for hosting U-17 tournaments, hosting requirements for the AFC U17 Women’s Asian Cup™ will be significantly simplified across all function areas such as match venues, accommodation, transportation, match officials and branding, to encourage more Member Associations to consider staging the competition.

Additionally, 2025 will serve as a transition year for the AFC U17 Women’s Asian Cup™, as it is not feasible to organise both the Qualifiers and Finals within the calendar year. As such, to determine the Continent’s qualifiers for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2025, the AFC has ranked all participating teams from the past three editions of the AFC U17 Women’s Asian Cup™/AFC U-16 Women’s Championship.

This approach, which ensures fairness and integrity given the strength and consistent track record of the AFC’s U17 women’s teams, also allows the AFC and Member Associations to focus on preparing for the 2026 edition.

Ranking the participating teams at each of the AFC U-16 Women’s Championship Thailand 2017, AFC U-16 Women’s Championship Thailand 2019 and AFC U17 Women’s Asian Cup™ Indonesia 2024 have produced the following top four teams: DPR Korea, Japan, Korea Republic and China PR. Consequently, this quartet will be the AFC’s representatives at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in 2025.

Separately, the AFC Executive Committee also ratified the AFC Futsal & Beach Soccer Committee’s decisions to award the hosting rights of the AFC Women’s Futsal Asian Cup™ 2025 to the Chinese Football Association and the AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup™ 2025 to The Football Association of Thailand.

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