Asia will take one step closer to the return of top-class women's futsal when the official draw ceremony for the AFC Women's Futsal Asian Cup™ China 2025 Qualifiers takes place on Thursday, October 17 at 6pm AEDT.
Nineteen teams will be in the hat for the draw at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where they will discover their qualifying pathways for the third edition of the AFC Women's Futsal Asian Cup™ that is slated for May 2025.
This is the first time that a qualifying campaign will be held for the tournament, which was last played in 2018. The 19-strong cast will be split into four groups - three groups of five teams and one group of four teams - to contest a centralised league format from January 11 to 19, 2025.
Nine teams - the top two of each group and the best third-placed team among all groups - will progress to the Finals and join hosts China PR and 2018's top two, Islamic Republic of Iran and Japan, to continue their quest for glory.
The top three finishers at the AFC Women's Futsal Asian Cup™ China 2025 will seal their berths at the inaugural FIFA Futsal Women's World Cup, to be hosted by the Philippines - who have automatically qualified - in the second half of 2025.
Nine sides - Australia, India, Iraq, Kuwait, Kyrgyz Republic, Myanmar, Pakistan, Palestine and the Philippines - will eye first-time qualification for the AFC Women's Futsal Asian Cup™, with both prior editions (2015 and 2018) having been won by IR Iran.
The teams have been seeded and placed into four pots for the draw according to the final ranking of the previous edition, the AFC Women's Futsal Championship Thailand 2018; teams that were not involved have been allocated into Pot 4, with the group hosts in the Hosts Pot, as below:
Pot 1: Vietnam
Pot 2: Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, China, Lebanon, Turkmenistan
Pot 3: Bahrain, Macau
Pot 4: Australia, India, Iraq, Kuwait, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines
Hosts Pot: Thailand, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Myanmar
Another draw will be conducted prior to the start of the AFC Women's Futsal Asian Cup™ China 2025 for the 12 qualified teams, who will be split into three groups of four; the top two finishers in each group and the two best third-placed teams will then advance to the last eight.
If the Philippines progress to the Semi-finals, the other three semi-finalists will qualify for the FIFA Futsal Women's World Cup 2025; otherwise, the two finalists and winner of the third-place playoff will qualify.
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