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All eyes will be on Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Thursday at 4pm (local time) for the official draw ceremony of the 2024 AFC U-17 Women’s Asian Cup – Indonesia Qualifiers Round 1, featuring 29 teams looking to impact the tournament after a four-year pandemic-induced break.
The competition kicks off with the teams competing in eight groups in Round 1 from April 22 to 30, 2023. The eight Round 1 group winners will then play the Round 2 Qualifiers in two groups from September 16 to 24, 2023.
The Qualifiers are to be contested in centralised venues across Guam, Jordan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Singapore, Tajikistan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Four teams from Round 2 will advance to the Finals, which is scheduled to be held in Indonesia from April 7 to 20, 2024. They will be joined by the top three teams from the 2019 AFC U-16 Women’s Championship – Thailand as well as hosts Indonesia, who will participate in the Qualifiers but will remain unranked during the draw.
Defending champions and four-time winners Japan, runners-up and three-time champions North Korea, and third-placed China are the teams from 2019 to qualify directly for the Finals.
Seedings for Round 1 are based on the rankings of the 2019 AFC U-16 Women’s Championship – Thailand, which has since been rebranded as the AFC U17 Women’s Asian Cup.
The 29 teams will have their names drawn from four seeding pots with the eight host nations for the Qualifiers placed in a separate host pot, listed below according to their seeding:
Pot 1 (teams ranked 4-11): Australia, Korea Republic, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Iran, the Philippines
Pot 2 (ranked 12-19): Chinese Taipei, India, Uzbekistan, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Malaysia
Pot 3 (ranked 20-27): Nepal, United Arab Emirates, Palestine, Northern Mariana Islands
Pot 4 (ranked 28 and below): Bahrain, Bhutan, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Cambodia
Hosts Pot: Guam, Jordan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Singapore, Tajikistan, Thailand, Vietnam
