2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup

2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup
Tournament details
Host country	India
Dates	20 January – 6 February
Teams	12 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	3 (in 3 host cities)

The 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup will be the 20th edition of the AFC Women's Asian Cup, the quadrennial international football tournament in Asia competed by the women's national teams in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).[1]

India was recommended as the host of the tournament by AFC Women's Football Committee and selected as the host in June 2020.[2][3] It will be the second time that the country hosts the competition, the first being in 1979.[4] On 28 January 2021, the AFC confirmed that the tournament would take place between 20 January and 6 February 2022, instead of the original scheduled dates of late October and early November.[5][6]

For the first time in the competition, the final tournament was expanded from eight teams to twelve.[7] It will serve as the final stage of Asian qualification for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand (Regulations Article 4.6),[1] in which Australia already qualified automatically as a co-host.[8] Five teams will qualify directly for the World Cup via the knockout stage (including play-offs for fifth place or possibly sixth place), and two more teams will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Japan are the defending champions.

Host selection

The following three football associations submitted their interest to host the tournament by the 31 May 2019 deadline.[9]

India had previously hosted the 1980 AFC Women's Championship, originally scheduled for 1979, and Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) had hosted the 1977 and 2001 editions of the tournament.[10]

India was recommended as the host for the 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup by the AFC Women's Football Committee on 19 February 2020.[2] On 5 June 2020, India was awarded the hosting rights.[3][11]

Qualification

The host country India and the top three teams of the previous tournament in 2018 qualified automatically, while the other eight teams were decided by qualification matches played in September and October 2021.[12]

Qualified teams

The following twelve teams qualified for the tournament:

Team	Method of qualification	Date of qualification	Finals appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
India	Hosts	5 June 2020	9th	2003	Runners-up (1979, 1983)
Japan	2018 champions	28 January 2021	17th	2018	Champions (2014, 2018)
Australia	2018 runners-up	28 January 2021	6th	2018	Champions (2010)
China PR	2018 third place	28 January 2021	15th	2018	Champions (1986, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2006)
Chinese Taipei	Group A winners	24 October 2021	14th	2008	Champions (1977, 1979, 1981)
Vietnam	Group B winners	29 September 2021	9th	2018	Sixth place (2014)
Indonesia	Group C winners	27 September 2021	5th	1989	Fourth place (1977, 1986)
Myanmar	Group D winners	24 October 2021	5th	2014	Group stage (2003, 2006, 2010, 2014)
South Korea	Group E winners	23 September 2021	13th	2018	Third place (2003)
Philippines	Group F winners	24 September 2021	10th	2018	Sixth place (2018)
Iran	Group G winners	25 September 2021	1st	N/A	Debut
Thailand	Group H winners	25 September 2021	17th	2018	Champions (1983)

Venues

The venues for the 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup are located across three cities in India, and matches will be played in three stadiums.[13] Originally, the host cities were Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar and Navi Mumbai, and the AFC confirmed the three host cities of the event in June 2021.[14][15] However, on 6 July 2021, AFC announced Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra will host the tournament.[16]

Maharashtra	Mumbai	Navi Mumbai	Pune
Mumbai Navi Mumbai Pune	Mumbai Football Arena	DY Patil Stadium	Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex
	Capacity: 18,000	Capacity: 55,000	Capacity: 11,900

Draw

The final draw was held on 28 October 2021, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[17] The twelve teams were drawn into three groups of four teams.[18] The seedings were based on their performance in 2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup final tournament and qualification, with the hosts India automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.[19]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
India (H) Japan Australia	China PR Thailand South Korea	Philippines Vietnam Chinese Taipei	Myanmar Iran Indonesia

Squads

Each team has to register a squad of a minimum of 18 players and maximum of 23 players, at least three of whom must be goalkeepers (Regulations Article 26.3).[1]

Group stage

The top two teams of each group and the two best third-placed teams qualify for the quarter finals.[1]

Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 7.3):[1]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are tied and they met in the last round of the group;
Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
Drawing of lots.

All times are local, IST (UTC+05:30).

Schedule
Matchday	Dates	Matches
Matchday 1	20–22 January 2022	1 v 4, 2 v 3
Matchday 2	23–25 January 2022	4 v 2, 3 v 1
Matchday 3	26–28 January 2022	1 v 2, 3 v 4

Group A

Pos	Team	Qualification
1	India (H)	Knockout stage
2	China PR	Knockout stage
3	Chinese Taipei	Possible knockout stage
4	Iran

First match(es) will be played on 20 January 2022. Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Host

20 January 2022