The 2024 WAFF Women's Championship was the 8th edition of the

WAFF Women's Championship The West Asian Football Federation Women's Championship (), or simply WAFF Women's Championship, is an international women's association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of the West Asian Footbal ...

, the biennial international

women's football Women's football most often refers to: * Women's association football Women's football may also refer to: * Women's gridiron football * Women's Australian rules football * Ladies' Gaelic football * Women's rugby league * Women's rugby union ...

tournament in West Asia competed by the national teams in the

West Asian Football Federation The West Asian Football Federation (WAFF; ) is a regional sub-confederation of association football, governed under the Asian Football Confederation. Founded in 2001, it governs football, futsal and beach football for nations in West Asia. The W ...

(WAFF). The tournament was hosted by the kingdom of

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

, it was the first major women's football tournament to be hosted in the kingdom.

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

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

were unable to secure victory in any of their matches. Nepalese striker

Sabitra Bhandari Sabitra Bhandari (), popularly known as Samba, is a Nepalese professional football player who plays as a forward for Première Ligue club En Avant Guingamp and Nepal women's national team. She is the all-time highest goal scorer in Nepalese ...

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

participating for the first time in a major football tournament. This was also the first edition where non-

members were also invited, namely

Guam Guam ( ; ) is an island that is an Territories of the United States, organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. Guam's capital is Hagåtña, Guam, Hagåtña, and the most ...

, an EAFF member and

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

, a

SAFF South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) is an association of the Association football, football playing nations in South Asia. Incorporated in 1997, it is a regional subsidiary of Asian Football Confederation. The members of the association are ...

member. Although numerous Egyptian media outlets indicated that an invitation had been sent to the

Egypt women's national football team The Egypt women's national football team (), nicknamed "the Cleopatras", represents Egypt in international women's football. It is managed by the Egyptian Football Association, the governing body of football in the country. Like most African nat ...

for the 2024 edition, the team was not included in the list of participants published on 4 February 2024 ;Did not enter * * * * * *

Draw

The final draw took place at the West Asian Football Federation Headquarters in

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

, Jordan, on 5 February 2024 at 11:00 AST (

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, ...

). 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 Doumouh Ibrahim Al Bakkar (; born 7 April 1990) is a Lebanese football referee who officiates primarily in the Lebanese Women's Football League. Starting out as a player and coach, Al Bakkar became a referee in 2014. In addition to women's ma ...

* 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 Jeddah ( ), alternatively transliterated as Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; , ), is a List of governorates of Saudi Arabia, governorate and the largest city in Mecca Province, Saudi Arabia, and the country's second largest city after Riyadh, located ...

as the designated host city, with two chosen venues: the annex stadium of

King Abdullah Sports City King Abdullah Sports City Stadium (), known as Alinma Bank, Alinma Stadium due to sponsorship reasons, also nicknamed The Shining Jewel () or simply The Jewel, is a Multi-purpose stadium and the main stadium of the sports city located 30 kilome ...

for the group stage and

Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Sports City Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Sports City Stadium known as Al-Faisal Stadium () is a football stadium in the port city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. History The stadium is located in the south east of Jeddah, between King Abdulaziz University and the ...

for the knockout stage.

Group stage

;Tiebreakers Teams were ranked according to

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), 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 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 ...

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 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 ...

would be used to decide the winner if necessary (no

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 ...

was played).

Bracket

Semi-finals

Final

Assistant referees:
Nawaf Moosa (

Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

)
Salman Mohamed Talasi (

)

Fourth official In association football, an assistant referee (also known as a linesman) is an official who assists the referee in administering the Laws of the Game during a match. Although assistants are not required under the Laws, at most organised levels ...

:
Khuloud Al-Zaabi (

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

)

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:

Statistics

Goal scorers

Tournament rankings

, - , colspan="11", Eliminated in the semi-finals , - , - , colspan="11", Eliminated in the group stage , -

References

{{WAFF Women's Championship

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

WAFF

WAFF Championship The West Asian Football Federation Championship (), or simply WAFF Championship, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF), the ...

International association football competitions hosted by Saudi Arabia