The AFC Women's Asian Cup (formerly known as the AFC Women's Championship) is a quadrennial competition in women's football for national teams which belong to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It is the oldest women's international football competition and premier women's football competition in the AFC region for national teams. The competition is also known as the Asian Women's Football Championship and the Asian Women's Championship. 21 tournaments have been held, with the current champions being Japan. Most competitions between 1991 and 2026 also served as the Asian qualifying tournament for the FIFA Women's World Cup.

History

The competition was set up by the Asian Ladies Football Confederation (ALFC), a part of the AFC responsible for women's football. The first competition was held in 1975 and was held every two years after this, except for a period in the 1980s where the competition was held every three years. The ALFC was initially a separate organisation but was absorbed into the AFC in 1986.

From 1975 to 1981, matches were 60 minutes in duration.

The competition has been dominated by countries from the Pacific Rim or Eastern Asia (including East and Southeast Asia), with the China women's national football team having won 9 times, including a series of 7 consecutive victories as of 2022 edition. Countries from Central and West Asia have been rather less successful, with only Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Jordan and Iran having qualified so far. Eastern Asia has also been far more frequent in participating in the FIFA Women's World Cup, with five strongest women's teams of Asia (China, North Korea, Japan, Australia, and South Korea) hail from this part.

The tournament frequency changed to every 4 years effective from 2010, after AFC had announced that the Asian Cup will additionally serve as the qualification rounds of the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Until 2003, teams were invited by the AFC to compete. From 2006, a separate qualification was established and the number of teams will be decided by the merit by qualification process. The name of the tournament was also changed to as the "AFC Women's Asian Cup", to reflect the change and reforms of the competition.

The tournament was expanded from eight teams to twelve starting from the 2022 edition.

On 20 August 2023, AFC has decided to shift the AFC Women's Asian Cup to non-FIFA Women's World Cup odd years, which will see the edition after the upcoming 2026 AFC Women's Asian Cup takes place in 2029 instead of 2030.

On 13 September 2024, AFC announced the change in the format of their women's national team competitions, including a new qualifying format for the Women's Asian Cup. In addition, the Women's Asian Cup will no longer serve as Asian qualifying tournament for the FIFA Women's World Cup from 2031 and instead serve as qualification for AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament from 2028.

Trophy The current AFC Women’s Asian Cup trophy was manufactured by London-based company, Thomas Lyte. First presented in 2018, the trophy is made from 5.5kg of sterling silver, and sits at 52.5cm in height. The six handles represent the six countries which took part in the inaugural competition in 1975. The base of the trophy is decorated with the images of eight modern female footballers.

Qualification

Format All of the 47 members of the AFC who have a women's national team are eligible to participate in the qualification tournament.

Starting from 2022 edition, a total of twelve teams participate in the final tournament including the hosts, top three finishers of the previous edition and eight teams from the qualification tournament.

Results

YearHosts Final Third-place match or losing semi-finalists Teams Champions Score Runners-up Third place Score Fourth place11975 3–15–0621977 3–12–0631980 2–0 and Western Australia641981 5–02–0851983 3–00–0661986 2–03–0771989 1–03–1881991 5–00–0 991993 3–03–09101995 2–00–0 11111997 2–02–011121999 3–03–215132001 2–08–014142003 2–1 (a.e.t./g.g.)1–014152006 2–2 3–29162008 2–13–08172010 1–1 2–08182014 1–02–18192018 1–03–18202022 3–2 and 12212026 1–0 and 12222029 12

Teams reaching the top four NationChampionsRunners-upThird placeFourth placeSemi-finalistsTotal92311163453116332109322209141118131106100001021003011316001102001102000213000202000011 Total 21211818682

Overall team records In this ranking 3 points are awarded for a win, 1 for a draw and 0 for a loss. As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws. Teams are ranked by total points, then by goal difference, then by goals scored.

RankTeam116806551037741+336200218876162039461+333189315694062217993+86126411583961325642+2141235176934233115171−56104614593182017384+8910179462571410049+518281039164196577−1252914571144226191−1653710933111213992−53341162180131978−5924121141723226198−1722313727711921115−942214934532620161−141181551741121777−60131614400113+81217392251639−2381851722131656−4081941510145112−10732026015021−2112113003011−1102226006529−240233100010166−650

Comprehensive team results by tournament Team 1975(6) 1977(6) 1980(6) 1981(8) 1983(6) 1986(7) 1989(8) 1991(9) 1993(8) 1995(11) 1997(11) 1999(15) 2001(14) 2003(14) 2006(9) 2008(8) 2010(8) 2014(8) 2018(8) 2022(12) 2026(12) 2029(12) Years 3rdOFC member SFOFC member 2nd 4th 1st 2nd 2nd QF 2nd 9 GS 1 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 3rd 2nd 1st 2nd 4th 3rd 3rd 1st SF 16 1st 1st 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 3rd 4th 2ndGS GS GS GS QF QF 15 GS GS GS GS 4GS GS SF 4th GSGS 4th GS GS GS GS GS GS GS 14 2nd 3rd 2nd GS GS GS GS GS WD GS 10 4th GS 4th GS GS 5 GS GS 2 GS GS 2nd 3rd 2nd 3rd 2nd 3rd 4th 2nd 4th 4th 3rd 3rd 1st 1st SF 1st 18 GSGS 2Part of GS GS GS UEFA member 3 GS 4th 2nd 2nd 3rd 1st 1st 3rd 1st 2nd QF 11 GS GS 4th GS GS 4th 3rd GS GS GS 4th 5th 2nd SF 14 4th GS 3rd GS GSGSGS GS GS 9 GS GS GS GS GS 5 GS GS GS 3 1stOFC member 1 GS GS GS GS GSGS GS GS 6th SF QF 11 GS 3rd GS 4th GS GS GS 7 2nd 2nd 2nd 1st 3rd GS GS GS GS GSGS GS GS GS 5th 4th QF 17Part of GS GS GS GS GS QFQ 7 GS GS GS GSGS GS6th GS QF GS 10

Awards Year Most Valuable Player Top Scorer Goals Best goalkeeper Fairplay Award 2006 Ma Xiaoxu Yūki Nagasato7 2008 Homare Sawa Ri Kum-suk7 2010 Jo Yun-mi Kozue Ando Homare Sawa Jo Yun-mi Yoo Young-a3 2014 Aya Miyama Yang Li Park Eun-sun6 2018 Mana Iwabuchi Li Ying7 2022 Sam Kerr7 Zhu Yu 2026 Alanna Kennedy Riko Ueki6 Ayaka Yamashita

Winning coaches Year Team Coach 1975 Dave Farrington 1977 Liu Jun-tse 1980 Chang Teng-yun 1981 Kao Yong 1983 1986 Cong Zheyu 1989 Shang Ruihua 1991 Shang Ruihua 1993 Ma Yuanan 1995 Ma Yuanan 1997 Ma Yuanan 1999 Ma Yuanan 2001 Ri Song-gun 2003 Ri Song-gun 2006 Ma Liangxing 2008 Kim Kwang-min 2010 Tom Sermanni 2014 Norio Sasaki 2018 Asako Takakura 2022 Shui Qingxia 2026 Nils Nielsen

See also AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament AFC U-20 Women's Asian Cup AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup Football at the Asian Games AFF Women's Championship CAFA Women's Championship EAFF E-1 Football Championship (women) SAFF Women's Championship WAFF Women's Championship

AFC Asian Cup

Notes

References

Further reading

External links Official website Tournament history at RSSSF