The pot for the first round of Asian women's
Olympic qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics has been made public on 9th
Jan Sunday 2023.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) released the pots for the draw of regional qualifying round. Nepal National Women’s team who will also participate in the competition has been placed in the 2nd pot along with Iran, Jordan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia. A total of 26 participating teams from Asian region will be divided into 7 groups. There will be four teams in five groups and three teams in the remaining two groups.
Where are the other’s south Asian teams??
India: India who are currently the highest ranked south Asian teams are placed in the pot 1 alongside with Vietnam, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Myanmar, Uzbekistan & Philippines.
Bangladesh: Lower in FIFA women’s ranking than Nepal, Bangladesh has been placed in the port 3 alongside with Palestine, Singapore, Turkmenistan, Lebanon, Tajikistan & Timor-Leste
Maldives, Pakistan, Srilanka & Bhutan: These lower ranked teams are placed in port 4 alongside with Afghanistan.
How the teams are seeded for the
pots?
Based on the current FIFA women’s ranking the
26 teams has been categorized under the 4 different pots. Each teams drawn from
their individual pots will form the qualifying group .i.e. no two teams from
the same pot won’t be drawn in the same group.
Here’s how the seeding pots look like:
Pot 1 (teams ranked 6-12): Vietnam, Chinese
Taipei, Thailand, Myanmar, Uzbekistan, Philippines, India
Pot 2 (13-19): Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan, Hong Kong,
Indonesia, Nepal, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia
Pot 3 (20-26): Palestine, Singapore, Turkmenistan,
Bangladesh, Lebanon, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste
Pot 4 (27-30 + 1 non-ranked team): Sri Lanka,
Maldives, Pakistan, Bhutan, Afghanistan.
Note: Since Nepal is in the higher port 2, they will face the weaker teams in the qualifications.
Who could Nepal play in the qualification after draw?
It’s clear that Nepal could be grouped with any other 6 South Asian teams as they are in different seeding pots. Nepal have high chances to have India, Bangladesh & among Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, Bhutan. If this happens then the group will contains all of the south Asian teams only.
When is the draw happening?? Date & time?
The
Women's Olympic Football Tournament 2024 Asian Qualifiers Round 1 official draw
ceremony will be conducted on January 12, 2023. One can catch the live stream
on AFC Asian Cup's official YouTube channel.
Qualification Scenario:
The winners of each group from
the first round will advance to Round 2 where they will be joined by the five
highest seeded teams - DPR Korea, Japan, Australia, China PR, and Korea
Republic. ( 12 teams/3 groups/each with 4 teams).
Four teams from Round 2 -
three group winners and the best-ranked runners-up - then face off in Round 3
where they play two pairs of home and away matches with the two eventual
winners qualifying for the Women's Olympic Football Tournament in Paris in 2024.