UAE to compete in largest-ever AFC U17 Women's Asian Cup Qualifiers

KUALA LUMPUR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 14th Jul, 2026) The AFC U17 Women’s Asian Cup™ will witness the highest ever number of participating teams in its Qualifiers as it looks towards the 2027 edition.

A total of 30 teams—two more than the previous record of 28 from the 2019 Qualifiers—will enter the draw, which takes place on Thursday at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The ceremony will split the cast into eight groups—six of four and two of three—to contest a single round-robin centralised league from 5th to 11th October, with each group winner advancing to the 11th edition of the Finals that will be staged in China PR for a second consecutive year and fifth occasion overall.

They join the quartet of teams that have qualified directly as the top four finishers from the 2026 campaign: defending champions DPR Korea, runners-up Japan, and semi-finalists Australia and China PR.

Taking place for a ninth time since being first implemented for the 2009 edition, the upcoming Qualifiers will see Bhutan make their debut; alongside the South Asians, 11 other teams will hope to qualify for their first-ever Finals: UAE, Cambodia, Iraq, the Kyrgyz Republic, Macau, Malaysia, Northern Mariana Islands, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Tajikistan.

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The cast has been seeded into four pots and an additional Hosts Pot for the draw based on a points system derived from their final rankings across the previous three editions.

Pot 1 comprises the Republic of Korea, the Philippines, India, Chinese Taipei, and Indonesia. Pot 2 includes Lebanon, Iran, Hong Kong, China, Bangladesh, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Jordan.

Pot 3 features Northern Mariana Islands, Saudi Arabia, Guam, Syria, and Macau, while Pot 4 consists of Palestine, UAE, Bahrain, Bhutan, Cambodia, and Iraq.

The Hosts Pot includes Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Laos, and Tajikistan.

A draw will be held in December to determine the Group Stage fate of the 12 participating teams at the AFC U17 Women’s Asian Cup China 2027™, which is slated to run from 31st March to 17th April 2027.

The top four finishers at the tournament will go on to represent Asia at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Morocco 2027.