AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification
| Founded | 2006 |
|---|---|
| Region | AFC (Asia) |
| Number of teams | 46 |
| 2026 | |
The AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification, is a quadrennial international association football competition for women's, organised by the sport's Asian governing body, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to decide the participants for AFC Women's Asian Cup. The competition has been held since 1975. Between 2006 and 2010 the tournament was held biennially, since 2010 it has been held every four years.
History
From 1975 to 2003 the qualification tournament for the final tournament did not exist and the teams were invited to participate. In 2006, the structure saw a major overhaul, with a qualifier tournament introduced for the final championship tournament, allowing all the member nations of AFC to participate. The tournament was also rebranded to 'AFC Women's Asian Cup'.
Since 2006, the qualification tournament has seen various changes in format. In the current format, a total of twelve teams qualify for the final tournament which includes the hosts, top three finishers of previous edition and eight teams who qualify via qualification tournament.[1] From the 2029 edition, a total of twelve teams will qualify for the final tournament which includes the hosts and eleven teams who qualify via the second round of the new 2-round qualification tournament.[2]
| Tournament | Debutants | Number of teams in the qualifiers | Number of teams in the final tournament |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Hong Kong*, Thailand, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand and Malaysia | — | 6 |
| 1977 | Republic of China*, Indonesia and Japan | — | 6 |
| 1980 | India* and Western Australia | — | 6 |
| 1981 | Philippines | — | 8 |
| 1983 | None | — | 6 |
| 1986 | China* and Nepal | — | 7 |
| 1989 | North Korea | — | 8 |
| 1991 | South Korea | — | 9 |
| 1993 | None | — | 8 |
| 1995 | Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan | — | 11 |
| 1997 | Guam | — | 11 |
| 1999 | Hong Kong (as an SAR of China) and Vietnam | — | 15 |
| 2001 | None | — | 14 |
| 2003 | Myanmar | — | 14 |
| 2006 | Australia (as an AFC member) | 12 | 9 |
| 2008 | None | 10 | 8 |
| 2010 | None | 12 | 8 |
| 2014 | Jordan* | 16 | 8 |
| 2018 | None | 19 | 8 |
| 2022 | Iran | 24 | 12 |
| 2026 | Bangladesh | 34 | 12 |
* – Hosts
See also
References
- ^ "AFC to invest in new era of national team and club competitions". AFC. 26 October 2019.
- ^ "AFC unveils breakthrough reforms to strengthen Women's National Team Competitions". Asian Football Confederation. 13 September 2024. Retrieved 14 September 2024.