AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022 Qualifiers Draw will be staged virtually at 4:30pm on Thursday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with 28 Member Associations (MAs) in the running to qualify for Asia’s marquee women’s national team competition, which will feature an expanded 12 teams for the first time.

The AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022 Qualifiers will divide 28 MAs into four seeding pots based on the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Jordan 2018 ranking. Defending champions Japan, runners-up Australia and third-placed China PR as well as hosts India have already qualified for the Finals.

The teams will be divided into four groups of four and four groups of three, with the winners of each group clinching their place in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022, scheduled to take place from January 20 to February 6.

Additionally, the hosts for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022 Qualifiers consisting of Bangladesh, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Palestine, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will be placed in a separate host pot. They will be drawn into the separate groups based on their positions in their ranking pot.

Due to the lower number of hosts, there will be no host team drawn into Group H and the AFC will follow-up with the Participating Member Associations drawn to this group for further arrangements on the venue details. Meanwhile Bangladesh, Indonesia and Nepal are granted conditional hosting rights, which will be re-evaluated by the AFC six weeks before the first match of the Group for a final decision.

Thailand, Korea Republic, Philippines, Jordan, Vietnam and DPR Korea, will be placed in Pot 1, while Pot 2 will consist of Bahrain, Islamic Republic of Iran, Palestine, United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Pot 3 will include Iraq as well as non-ranked teams from Pot 4 (10 non-ranked teams) consisting of Afghanistan, Guam, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, and Turkmenistan.