The 2024 WAFF Women's Championship was the eighth edition of the WAFF Women's Championship, the international women's football tournament in West Asia competed by the national teams in the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF). The tournament was hosted by the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it was the first major women's football tournament to be hosted in the kingdom.https://www.forbes.com/sites/assiletoufaily/2024/02/05/saudi-arabia-hosts-the-waff-womens-championship-2024-in-jeddah/?ctpv=searchpage
Jordan were three-time defending champions having won the last three editions (Jordan 2014, Bahrain 2019 and Jordan 2022). and they successfully retained the title for the sixth time, after beating Nepal on penalties in the final. In the other hand tournament's host Saudi Arabia were unable to secure victory in any of their matches. Nepalese striker Sabitra Bhandari won the top scorer award scoring nine goals throughout the tournament. Jordanian player Maysa Jbarah was voted the tournament's best player, whilst Jbarah teammate Sherin Al-Shalabe was awarded the best goalkeeper award.
Teams Participating teams On 4 February 2024, the WAFF announced that 8 countries would participate in the 2024 edition – the highest number of participating countries in a single edition since United Arab Emirates 2011 – with Saudi Arabia participating for the first time in a major football tournament. This was also the first edition where non-West Asian Football Federation members were also invited, namely Guam, an EAFF member and Nepal, a SAFF member.
Although numerous Egyptian media outlets indicated that an invitation had been sent to the Egypt women's national football team for the 2024 edition, the team was not included in the list of participants published on 4 February 2024.
Country Appearance Previous best performanceFIFA rankingDecember 2023 1st Debut 93 2nd Group stage (2011) 8th Champions (2005, 2007, 2014, 2019, 2022)74 5th Runners-up (2022) 134 1st Debut 105 7th Runners-up (2014) 136 1st Debut 175 5th Third place (2005, 2022) 160
Did not enter
Draw The final draw took place at the West Asian Football Federation Headquarters in Amman, Jordan, on 5 February 2024 at 11:00 AST (UTC+3).
For the draw, The eight participating teams were drawn into a singular pot. Saudi Arabia, the host nation was identified by a different color and was automatically allocated to Group A, Position A1. A second pot with 8 balls representing positions A1, A2, A3, A4, B1, B2, B3, and B4 was used for the draw. The A1 position was marked with a different color. each time a team was drawn from the first pot was simultaneously assigned its specific position from the second pot.
Squads
Each team had to register a squad of 23 players, minimum three of whom must be goalkeepers. Match officials Referees
Mohamed Juma Ahmed Saad Ahmed Gatea Esraa Al-Mbaiden Haneen Murad Doumouh Al Bakkar Muath Owfi Alesar Baddour Khuloud Al-Zaabi
Assistant referees
Nawaf Moosa Salman Mohamed Talasi Karrar Abbas Half Islam Al-Abadi Sabreen Al-Abadi Mohamad El Hajje Alaa Amro Roba Zarka Amal Badhafari
Venues On 4 February 2024, WAFF announced Jeddah as the designated host city, with two chosen venues: the annex stadium of King Abdullah Sports City for the group stage and Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Sports City for the knockout stage. Jeddah King Abdullah Sports City Reserve Stadium Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Sports City Capacity: 10,000 Capacity: 27,000
Group stage
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: 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; 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.
Group A
Group B
Knockout stage In the knockout stage, penalty shoot-out would be used to decide the winner if necessary (no extra time was played).
Bracket
Semi-finals
Final
GK 1Sherin Al-ShalabeDF 19 Ayah Al-MajaliDF 21 Rand Abu-HusseinDF 3Alanoud Al-ZabreyDF 7Nour ZoqashDF 20 Lana FerasMF 8 Enas Al-Jamaeen FW 10Sarah Abu-Sabbah MF 17Rouzbahan FraijFW 13Leen Al-Btoush FW 11 Maysa Jbarah (c)Substitutions:FW 9Bana Al-Bitar MF16Zaina Hazem Manager:Maher Abu Hantash GK 16 Anjila Tumbapo Subba (c)DF 2Puja Rana DF 5 Amrita Jaisi DF 6 Hira Kumari BhujelFW 10 Rashmi Ghising DF 12 Gita RanaFW 13 Rekha Poudel MF 14 Preeti Rai FW 18Sabita Rana MagarMF 19Amisha Karki MF 23Dipa ShahiSubstitutions:MF 11Anita Basnet DF 15Amrita Jaisi MF 17Bimala Chaudhary Manager:Rajendra Tamang Assistant referees: Nawaf Moosa (Bahrain) Salman Mohamed Talasi (Bahrain) Fourth official: Khuloud Al-Zaabi (United Arab Emirates)
Awards The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament: Top scorer Sabitra Bhandari9 goalsBest Player Maysa JbarahBest goalkeeper Sherin Al-Shalabe Statistics Goal scorers
Tournament rankings
| colspan="11"| Eliminated in the semi-finals
| colspan="11"| Eliminated in the group stage
References