The 2020 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament was the 5th edition of the AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the quadrennial international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

competition organised by the

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in most countries and territories in Asia. The AFC was formed in 1954. It has 47 members. The Asian Ladies Football Confederation ( ...

(AFC) to determine which women's national teams from

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

qualify for the Olympic football tournament. The top two teams of the tournament qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics women's football tournament in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

as the AFC representatives, together with

(which already qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics as the host nation, and did not participate in the qualifying stage).

Format

Of the 47 AFC member associations, a total of 25 AFC member national teams entered the qualifying stage. The format is as follows: *First round: Excluding Japan, the five highest-ranked teams based on the June 2018

FIFA Women's World Rankings The FIFA Women's World Ranking is a ranking system for women's national teams in association football (commonly known as football or soccer) published by the international governing body FIFA. , the United States is ranked #1. The rankings were ...

– which were

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

China PR China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the second-most populous country after India, representing 17.4% of the world population. China spans the e ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

and

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

– received byes to the third round. The next two highest-ranked teams –

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

and

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

– received byes to the second round. The remaining 18 teams were drawn into two groups of five teams and two groups of four teams, with the teams also seeded according to their FIFA Rankings. In each group, teams play each other once at a centralised venue. The group winners, runners-up and two best third placed advance to the second round. *Second round: The twelve teams (two teams who entered this round and ten teams from the first round) are drawn into three groups of four teams. In each group, teams play each other once at a centralised venue. The group winners advanced to the third round. *Third round: The eight teams (five teams who entered this round and the group winners from the second round) are drawn into two groups of four teams. In each group, teams play each other once at a centralised venue. The top two teams of each group advance to the play-off round. *Play-off round: The group winners play against the runner-ups of the other third round group on a home-and-away basis. The two winners qualify for the Olympic Football Tournament.

Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to the following criteria (Regulations for the 2020 Olympic Football Tournaments, Article 19.2 and 19.3): #

Points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

(3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss) #Overall

goal difference Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...

#Overall goals scored #Drawing of lots by the FIFA Organising Committee Play-off ties are played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the aggregate score is tied after the second leg, the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

is applied, and if still level,

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

is played. The away goals rule is again applied after extra time, and if still level, the

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

is used to determine the winner (Regulations for the 2020 Olympic Football Tournaments, Article 19.6).

Teams

The draw for the first round of the qualifiers was held on 2 August 2018 at the AFC House in

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. All first round hosts were appointed after the draw. ;Notes *Teams in bold qualified for the Olympics. *Numbers in parentheses indicate the June 2018

(otherwise unranked). *(H): Qualification first round group hosts (* all chosen as group hosts after the draw, remaining group hosted at neutral venue) *(N): Not a member of the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

, ineligible for Olympics *(W): Withdrew after draw ;Did not enter * * * * * * * * * * * * (N) * * * * * * * * *

First round

The first round was played between 4–13 November 2018.

Group A

*All matches were held in

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

. *Times listed are

UTC+5 UTC+05:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +05:00. This time is used in: As standard time (year-round) Principal cities: Astana, Almaty, Kokshetau, Tashkent, Ashgabat, Dushanbe, Malé, Yekaterinburg, Martin-de-Viviès, Port-au ...

---- ---- ---- ----

Group B

*All matches were held in

(neutral venue host). *Times listed are

UTC+7 UTC+07:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +07:00. In ISO 8601 the associated time would be written as . It is 7 hours ahead of UTC, meaning that when the time in UTC areas is midnight (00:00), the time in UTC+07:00 areas would ...

---- ----

Group C

*All matches were held in

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

. *Times listed are UTC+6:30.

---- ----

Group D

*All matches were held in

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

. *Times listed are

UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. As standard time (year-round) Principal cities: Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Por ...

---- ----

Ranking of third-placed teams

Due to groups having different number of teams after withdrawals, the results against the fourth-placed and fifth-placed teams in four-team and five-team groups were not considered for this ranking.

Second round

The draw for the second round of the qualifiers was held on 13 February 2019, 16:00 MYT (

UTC+8 UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00. It is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a possible candidate for ASEAN Common Time, mainly due to China's large population, with an estimated population ...

), at the AFC House in

. For the second round, the twelve teams were drawn into three groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their latest FIFA Rankings. The three teams which originally indicated their intention to serve as qualification group hosts (Myanmar, Palestine and Uzbekistan) prior to the draw were drawn into separate groups. ;Notes *Numbers in parentheses indicate the December 2018

(NR: unranked). *(H): Qualification second round group hosts (Palestine were chosen to serve as hosts prior to the draw, but were replaced after the draw, and group hosted at neutral venue) The second round was played between 3–9 April 2019.

Group A

*All matches were held in

. *Times listed are UTC+6:30.

---- ----

Group B

*All matches were held in

. *Times listed are

---- ----

Group C

*All matches were held in

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

(neutral venue host); matches were originally to be held in

, but were moved as Iranian citizens were banned from entering Palestine territories by Iranian law. *Times listed are

UTC+3 UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a UTC offset, time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours ahead of the Coordinated Universal Time, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Following the ISO 8601 standard, ...

---- ----

Third round

The draw for the third round of the qualifiers was held on 18 October 2019, 16:00 MYT (

), at the AFC House in

. For the third round, the eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their latest FIFA Rankings. The two teams which originally indicated their intention to serve as qualification group hosts prior to the draw (China and South Korea) were drawn into separate groups (this was already ensured due to them being in the same pot). ;Notes *Numbers in parentheses indicate the September 2019

. *(H): Qualification third round group hosts (* Australia replaced China as group hosts after the draw) *(W): Withdrew after draw The third round was scheduled to be played between 3–9 February 2020. However, the schedule of Group B was extended to 3–13 February 2020 due to a shift for the Group B hosts to Australia and the quarantine requirements of members of the China national team as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Group A

*All matches were held in

. *Times listed are

UTC+9 UTC+09:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +09:00. During the Japanese occupations of British Borneo, Burma, Hong Kong, Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Philippines, Singapore, and French Indochina, it was used as a common time with ...

. *

were reported to have withdrawn from the competition for unknown reasons.

---- ----

Group B

*All matches were originally scheduled to be held in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, but were moved to

. *On 22 January 2020, the AFC moved the third round qualifiers Group B from

Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in China The COVID-19 pandemic in China is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). China was the first country to experience an outbreak of the di ...

which originated from Wuhan. *On 26 January 2020, as the pandemic worsened in China, the

Chinese Football Association The Chinese Football Association (), abbreviated as CFA (), is the governing body for association football, beach soccer and futsal in the People's Republic of China (Mainland China). The CFA organizes the men's and women's national teams an ...

withdrew their hosting rights, and all group matches were moved to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. *On 29 January 2020, after the announcement of the venues and kick-off times, and upon their arrival in Australia, the Chinese team and staff were subject to quarantine at a hotel in Brisbane for a term set to end on 5 February, after the first games were scheduled to be played on 3 February, as a result of the requirements of the Australian government in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia was a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first confirmed case in Aust ...

. On 31 January 2020,

Football Federation Australia Football Australia is the governing body of soccer, futsal, and beach soccer within Australia, headquartered in Sydney. Although the first governing body of the sport was founded in 1911, Football Australia in its current form was only establ ...

published the amended match schedule which allowed China to play their first match after the quarantine had ended. Further changes to the schedule were announced on 2 and 5 February 2020. *Times listed are UTC+11.

---- ---- ----

Play-off round

The play-off round was scheduled for 6 March 2020 (first legs hosted by third round group winners) and 11 March 2020 (second legs hosted by third round group runners-up). However, only one of the two ties was played as scheduled. Due to the

, the home leg of

was moved to

Campbelltown Stadium Campbelltown Sports Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Leumeah, a suburb in South Western Sydney, Australia, owned by Campbelltown City Council. Formerly known as Orana Park and Campbelltown Sports Ground, it is currently the home ground ...

instead of in China. The home leg of

was originally scheduled to be played at Yongin Citizen Sports Park in

Yongin Yongin (; ) is a city in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, the largest in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. With a population over 1 million, the city has developed rapidly since the 21st century, recording the highest population growth of any city in th ...

, but had been cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea The COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea is part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first case in South Korea was announced on 20 Januar ...

. The

Korea Football Association The Korea Football Association () is the governing body of football and futsal within South Korea. It sanctions professional, semi-professional and amateur football in South Korea. Founded in 1933, the governing body became affiliated with ...

had urged that it must be played in South Korean territory even if the match is played behind closed doors, while the

had urged that it must be switched to a neutral venue such as Australia due to the re-entry ban to Chinese nationals by the Australian Federal government. On 28 February 2020, the AFC announced both legs were rescheduled to 9 and 14 April 2020. On 9 March 2020, FIFA and AFC announced that play-off matches between South Korea and China were further postponed to 4 and 9 June 2020. On 27 May 2020, FIFA and AFC confirmed that play-off matches between South Korea and China would be postponed to 19 and 24 February 2021, as the Olympics had been postponed to July 2021. On 2 February 2021, FIFA and AFC announced that play-off matches between South Korea and China were further postponed to 8 and 13 April 2021. On 3 March 2021, FIFA and AFC confirmed the venues and time for the play-off matches between South Korea and China. The two play-off round winners qualified for the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

''Australia won 7–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''China won 4–3 on aggregate.''

Qualified teams

The following three teams from the AFC qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympic women's football tournament, including Japan which qualified as the hosts. :

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. ''Italic'' indicates hosts for that year.

² Australia qualified as a member of the OFC in 2000 and 2004.

Goalscorers

*First round: *Second round: *Third round: *Play-off round: In total,

References

External links

*, the-AFC.com
Women's Olympic Football Tournament 2020
stats.the-AFC.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Afc Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2020

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

Football at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Women's qualification Olympic Qualifying Tournament Olympic Qualifying Tournament Olympic Qualifying Tournament November 2018 sports events in Asia April 2019 sports events in Asia February 2020 sports events in Asia March 2020 sports events in Asia April 2021 sports events in Asia Association football events postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the 2020 Summer Olympics