AIPS ASIA News:

The Continent’s top women’s football clubs will discover their pathway to glory in the historic AFC Women’s Champions League™ 2024/25 season on Thursday, July 18 at the official draw ceremony for both the Preliminary Stage and Group Stage.

Set to take place at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) House in Kuala Lumpur at 3pm, 21 teams will be involved as they gear up for the landmark inaugural edition, which will commence in August.

Thirteen sides will contest the Preliminary Stage, which features four groups – one group of four teams and three groups of three. Bhutan, Jordan, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia will host one group each, to be played in a centralised league format between August 25 and 31, with the four group winners qualifying for the Group Stage.

These teams will join the other eight clubs that have qualified directly to the Group Stage, which comprises three groups of four teams to be contested in a centralised league format from October 6 to 12. China PR, Thailand and Vietnam will host one group each.

Clubs have been seeded and placed in pots for the draw according to their respective Member Association rankings, based on the FIFA Women’s World Ranking (as of March 15, 2024), as below:

Preliminary Stage
Pot 1: PFC Nasaf (UZB), Myawady Women Football Club (MYA), Bam Khatoon FC (IRN), Odisha Football Club (IND)
Pot 2: Kitchee SC (HKG), Young Elephants FC (LAO)
Pot 3: APF Football Club (NEP), Abu Dhabi Country Club (UAE), Lion City Sailors FC (SGP)
Hosts Pot: Etihad Club (JOR), Sabah FA (MAS), Royal Thimphu College FC (BHU), Al Nassr Club (KSA)

Group Stage
Pot 1: Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies (JPN), Melbourne City FC (AUS)
Pot 2: Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women’s FC (KOR), Kaya FC – Iloilo (PHI)
Pot 3: Taichung Blue Whale Women’s Football Team (TPE)
Pot 4: Four group winners from Preliminary Stage
Hosts Pot: Wuhan Jiangda Women’s FC (CHN), Ho Chi Minh City Women’s FC (VIE), College of Asian Scholars (THA)

The highly-anticipated showcase of top-class women’s club football will then see the top two finishers of each group and the two best third-placed sides progress to the Quarter-finals, to be played on March 22 and 23, 2025. A Knockout Stage draw will be conducted prior to the Quarter-finals to determine the four pairings, which will be contested in a single-leg format, with the higher-ranked team of each tie to serve as the home side.

This will be followed by a centralised Finals, which will see the Semi-finals and Final – all single-leg ties – being played out from May 21 to 24, 2025. With an attractive prize purse on offer, the first ever champions of the prestigious AFC Women’s Champions League™ can expect to be rewarded with at least USD1.3 million.

Courtesy AFC