2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup

The 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup was the 20th edition of the AFC Women's Asian Cup, the quadrennial international women's football tournament in Asia competed by the national teams in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).^[3]

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)
Final positions
Champions	China (9th title)
Runners-up	South Korea
Tournament statistics
Matches played	26
Goals scored	104 (4 per match)
Attendance	0 (0 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Sam Kerr (7 goals)
Best player(s)	Wang Shanshan^[1]
Best goalkeeper	Zhu Yu^[2]
Fair play award	South Korea
← 2018 2026 →

India was selected as the host nation by the AFC Women's Football Committee in June 2020.^[4]^[5] It was the first time that the country hosted the competition since 1979.^[6] 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.^[7]^[8]

For the first time in the competition, the final tournament was expanded from eight teams to twelve.^[9] It served as the final stage of Asian qualification for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand (Regulations Article 4.6),^[3] Australia already qualifying automatically as co-hosts.^[10] Five teams qualified directly for the World Cup via the knockout stage and two more advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Japan were the two-time defending champions, but were eliminated in the semi-finals by China PR on penalties. The Chinese went on to win the ninth title in their history by defeating South Korea 3–2 in the final.

Host selection

The following three football associations submitted their interest to host the tournament by the 31 May 2019 deadline.^[11]

India had previously hosted the 1980 AFC Women's Championship, originally scheduled for 1979, while Chinese Taipei hosted the 1977 and 2001 editions of the tournament.^[12]

India was recommended for hosting the tournament by the AFC Women's Football Committee on 19 February 2020.^[4] On 5 June 2020, the country was awarded the hosting rights.^[5]^[13]

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

The 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup was held amid the COVID-19 pandemic which affected the organization of the tournament. As a response, the tournament was held under a bio-secure bubble setup.^[14] All participating teams were granted exemption from institutional quarantine when foreigners were normally required to undergo home quarantine for seven days from 11 January 2022. Members of the participating teams underwent initial tests for COVID-19 upon arrival. They were required to stay in their hotels while they awaited their test results. Following negative test results, the movement of players and officials were restricted to the hotel, and the training and match venues.^[15]

Several teams reported positive COVID-19 cases during the tournament, namely China,^[16] India,^[17] Japan,^[18] South Korea,^[17] Myanmar,^[17] the Philippines,^[16] and Vietnam.^[17] Host India were the most affected, with as many as 12 players testing positive for COVID-19, rendering them unable to name 13 players for their match against Chinese Taipei, as required. India was forced to withdraw due to tournament regulations.^[19]^[20]

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.^[21]

Qualified teams

The following twelve teams qualified for the tournament:

Team	Method of qualification	Date of qualification	Finals appearance	Last appearance	FIFA Ranking^[a]	Previous best performance
India	Hosts	5 June 2020	9th	2003	55th	Runners-up (1979, 1983)
Japan	2018 champions	28 January 2021	17th	2018	13th	Champions (2014, 2018)
Australia	2018 runners-up	28 January 2021	6th	2018	11th	Champions (2010)
China	2018 third place	28 January 2021	15th	2018	19th	Champions (1986, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2006)
Chinese Taipei	Group A winners	24 October 2021	14th	2008	39th	Champions (1977, 1979, 1981)
Vietnam	Group B winners	29 September 2021	9th	2018	32nd	Sixth place (2014)
Indonesia^[b]	Group C winners	27 September 2021	5th	1989	94th	Fourth place (1977, 1986)
Myanmar	Group D winners	24 October 2021	5th	2014	47th	Group stage (2003, 2006, 2010, 2014)
South Korea	Group E winners	23 September 2021	13th	2018	18th	Third place (2003)
Philippines	Group F winners	24 September 2021	10th	2018	64th	Sixth place (2018)
Iran	Group G winners	25 September 2021	1st	N/A	70th	Debut
Thailand^[b]	Group H winners	25 September 2021	17th	2018	38th	Champions (1983)

^ As published on 10 December 2021
^ ^a ^b Due to non-compliance with conditions set by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Thailand and Indonesia were not allowed to be represented by their national flags.^[22]^[23] The sanctions took effect in October 2021.^[24] Thailand was represented by its national team logo and Indonesia by its coat of arms.^[25] The sanctions for Thailand were lifted on 4 February 2022.^[26]

Match officials

On 6 January 2022, the AFC announced the list of 16 referees, 16 assistant referees, two stand-by referees, two stand-by assistant referees and six video match officials for the tournament.^[27]^[28] Video assistant referees (VAR) would be used from the quarter-finals onwards.

Originally, Law Bik Chi (Hong Kong) was selected for the tournament. However, she was unable to travel to India due to travel restriction.^[29] She was replaced by Wang Chieh (Chinese Taipei).

Referees

Casey Reibelt
Lara Lee
Kate Jacewicz
Qin Liang
Wang Chieh
Ranjita Devi Tekcham
Mahsa Ghorbani
Mahnaz Zokaee
Yoshimi Yamashita
Asaka Koizumi
Thein Thein Aye
Abirami Naidu
Oh Hyeon-jeong
Kim Yu-jeong
Pansa Chaisanit
Edita Mirabidova

Assistant referees

Joanna Charaktis
Fang Yan
Xie Lijun
Uvena Fernandes
Ensieh Khabaz
Makoto Bozono
Naomi Teshirogi
Ramina Tsoi
Merlo Albano
Heba Saadieh
Kim Kyoung-min
Lee Seul-gi
Park Mi-suk
Supawan Hinthong
Kristina Sereda
Trương Thị Lệ Trinh

Video assistant referees

Ali Sabah
Abdulla Al-Marri
Kim Hee-gon
Hanna Hattab
Sivakorn Pu-Udom
Omar Al-Ali

Stand-by referees

Veronika Bernatskaia
Công Thị Dung

Stand-by assistant referees

Nuannid Dornjangreed
Zilola Rahmatova

Venues

The venues for the 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup were located across three cities in India.^[30] Originally, the host cities were Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar and Navi Mumbai, and the AFC confirmed the three host cities of the event in June 2021.^[31]^[32] However, on 6 July 2021, AFC announced Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra would host the tournament.^[33] All matches are played behind closed doors as a precaution due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[34]

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.^[35] The twelve teams were drawn into three groups of four teams.^[36] 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.^[37]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
India (H) Japan Australia	China 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).^[3]

Group stage

The top two teams of each group and the two best third-placed teams qualified for the quarter finals.^[3]

Tiebreakers

Teams were 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 were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 7.3):^[3]

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+5:30).^[38]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	China	2	2	0	11	0	+11	6	Knockout stage
2	Chinese Taipei	2	1	1	5	4	+1	3	Knockout stage
3	Iran	2	0	2	0	12	−12	0
4	India (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Withdrew^[a]

Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Host
Notes:

^ India failed to name the required 13 players and were unable to play their match of the group stage against Chinese Taipei due to them having only fewer than 13 players left with the remaining team members testing positive for COVID-19. They were considered to have withdrawn from the competition, and all previous matches played by them shall be considered "null and void" and would not be considered in determining the final group rankings.^[39]

20 January 2022