The 2026 AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification was an association football qualification tournament for the 2026 AFC Women's Asian Cup.

The qualification tournament decided eight of the twelve participating teams in the final tournament to be held in Australia. Along with the host nation, the top three teams in the 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup final tournament also secured automatic qualification: China, South Korea and Japan. A total of 34 teams submitted entries to participate in the qualifiers.

This tournament served as the first stage of Asian qualification for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup and the 2028 Olympic football tournament.

The teams were divided into eight groups, with group winners qualifying to the final tournament.

Draw The draw took place on 27 March 2025, 15:00 MST (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur.

For the first time in the tournament's history, the seeding for both qualifiers and final draws is based on the latest FIFA Women's World Ranking at the time of the draw. Previously, the teams were seeded according to their performance in the previous final tournament and qualification rankings.

On 26 February 2025, the AFC confirmed the eight associations that had expressed their intent to host qualification groups ahead of the draw. The qualifying tournament originally was to feature eight groups, with one group comprising five teams, while the remaining seven groups would each consist of four teams. On 2 March 2025, FIFA lifted the suspension of the Pakistan Football Federation, clearing the way for Pakistan to enter qualification. As a result, 34 teams entered qualification and were drawn into two groups of five teams and six groups of four.

Automatically qualified for final tournament and not participating in qualificationParticipating in qualificationPot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4Pot 5 Notes Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament. (H): Qualification group hosts determined before the draw. These teams were taken from their respective pots and placed in a separate Host Pot, and could not be drawn in the same group. Did not enter

(161) (175) (NR) (NR) (NR) (N/A)

Draw result The draw resulted in following groups.

+ Group A Team A1 A2 (H) A3 A4 A5 + Group B Team B1 (H) B2 B3 B4 B5 + Group C Team C1 (H) C2 C3 C4 + Group D Team D1 D2 (H) D3 D4 + Group E Team E1 (H) E2 E3 E4 + Group F Team F1 (H) F2 F3 F4 + Group G Team G1 G2 G3 (H) G4 + Group H Team H1 H2 H3 H4 (H) Notes (H): Qualification group hosts

Format and schedule

Schedule The matches were played during the windows of 23 June – 5 July and 7–19 July 2025.

+Competition scheduleMatchdayGroup AGroup BGroups C, D, E, F, G, HMatchday 17 July 202523 June 202529 June 2025Matchday 210 July 202526 June 20252 July 2025Matchday 313 July 202529 June 20255 July 2025Matchday 416 July 20252 July 2025 Matchday 519 July 20255 July 2025

Qualification tiebreakers

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 7.2.2): Points in head-to-head matches among participating teams; Goal difference in head-to-head matches among participating teams; Goals scored in head-to-head matches among participating 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 the matches between the participating teams, Goal difference from all group matches; Goals scored from 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.

Groups Group A All matches were held in Jordan. Times listed are UTC+3.

Group B All matches were held in Thailand. Times listed are UTC+7.

Group C All matches were held in Myanmar. Times listed are UTC+6:30.

Group D All matches were held in Indonesia. Times listed are UTC+7.

Group E All matches were held in Vietnam. Times listed are UTC+7.

Group F All matches were held in Uzbekistan. Times listed are UTC+5.

Group G All matches were held in Cambodia. Times listed are UTC+7.

Group H All matches were held in Tajikistan. Times listed are UTC+5.

Qualified teams The host country Australia qualified automatically, along with the top three teams from the 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup.

The following teams qualified for the tournament:

TeamMethod ofqualificationDate ofqualificationFinalsappearanceLastappearanceFIFARankingPrevious bestperformance 7th 2022 15 (2010) 16th 2022 17 14th 2022 21 (2022) 18th 2022 7 (2014, 2018) 1st 128 Group G winners 11th 2022 41 (2022) Group E winners 10th 2022 37 (2014, 2022) Group B winners 10th 2022 70 (1979, 1983) Group D winners 15th 2022 42 (1977, 1979, 1981) Group H winners 11th 2010 9 (2001, 2003, 2008) Group F winners 6th 2003 51 2nd 2022 68 (2022)

Goalscorers

See also 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification 2026 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualification 2026 AFC U-17 Asian Cup qualification 2026 AFC U-20 Women's Asian Cup qualification 2026 AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup qualification

Notes

References

External links , the-AFC.com