AFC_U-17_Women's_Asian_Cup
AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup
Football tournament
The AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup, founded as the AFC U-17 Women's Championship and later the AFC U-16 Women's Championship, before changing to its current name after the 2019 edition,[1] is a biennial women's football tournament for youth teams organised by the Asian Football Confederation. It further serves as the qualifying competition for the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. The AFC have agreed to the proposal for switching the tournament from under-16 to under-17 starting from 2022.[2] Moreover, the tournament will also be rebranded from the "AFC U-16 Women's Championship" to the "AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup".[3]
The tournament was first held in 2005 as an Under-17 edition. With only eleven teams entering in the inaugural year, there was no qualification held.[4] In 2007 the tournament switched to the Under-16 modus, again eight teams entered the competition.[5] In 2009 twelve teams entered and thus for a first time a qualifying round was held.[6] The 2011 edition featured two qualification rounds. Here five seeded teams for the finals were joined by an additional 13 teams fighting for a final sixth spot.