India was selected as the host nation by the AFC Women's Football Committee in June 2020.[4][5] It was the first time that the country hosted the competition since 1979.[6] On 28 January 2021, the AFC confirmed that the tournament would take place between 20 January and 6 February 2022, instead of the original scheduled dates of late October and early November.[7][8]
For the first time in the competition, the final tournament was expanded from eight teams to twelve.[9] It served as the final stage of Asian qualification for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand (Regulations Article 4.6),[3] with Australia qualifying automatically as co-hosts.[10] Five teams qualified directly for the World Cup via the knockout stage and two more advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.
Japan were the two-time defending champions, but were eliminated in the semi-finals by China PR on penalties. The Chinese went on to win their record-extending ninth title by defeating South Korea 3–2 in the final.
India had previously hosted the 1980 AFC Women's Championship, originally scheduled for 1979, while Chinese Taipei hosted the 1977 and 2001 editions of the tournament.[13]
India was recommended for hosting the tournament by the AFC Women's Football Committee on 19 February 2020.[4] On 5 June 2020, the country was awarded the hosting rights.[5][14]
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
The 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup was held amid the COVID-19 pandemic which affected the organization of the tournament. As a response, the tournament was held under a bio-secure bubble setup.[15] All participating teams were granted exemption from institutional quarantine when foreigners were normally required to undergo home quarantine for seven days from 11 January 2022. Members of the participating teams underwent initial tests for COVID-19 upon arrival. They were required to stay in their hotels while they awaited their test results. Following negative test results, the movement of players and officials were restricted to the hotel, and the training and match venues.[16]
Several teams reported positive COVID-19 cases during the tournament, namely China,[17] India,[18] Japan,[19] South Korea,[18] Myanmar,[18] the Philippines,[17] and Vietnam.[18] Host India were the most affected, with as many as 12 players testing positive for COVID-19, rendering them unable to name 13 players for their match against Chinese Taipei, as required. India was forced to withdraw due to tournament regulations.[20][21]
The host country India and the top three teams of the previous tournament in 2018 qualified automatically, while the other eight teams were decided by qualification matches played in September and October 2021.[22]
Qualified teams
The following twelve teams qualified for the tournament:
^ abDue to non-compliance with conditions set by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Thailand and Indonesia were not allowed to be represented by their national flags.[23][24] The sanctions took effect in October 2021.[25] Thailand was represented by its national team logo and Indonesia by its coat of arms.[26] The sanctions for Thailand were lifted on 4 February 2022.[27]
Match officials
On 6 January 2022, the AFC announced the list of 16 referees, 16 assistant referees, two stand-by referees, two stand-by assistant referees and six video match officials for the tournament.[28][29]Video assistant referees (VAR) would be used from the quarter-finals onwards.
Originally, Law Bik Chi (Hong Kong) was selected for the tournament. However, she was unable to travel to India due to travel restriction.[30] She was replaced by Wang Chieh (Chinese Taipei).
The final draw was held on 28 October 2021, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[36] The twelve teams were drawn into three groups of four teams.[37] The seedings were based on their performance in 2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup final tournament and qualification, with the hosts India automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.[38]
Each team has to register a squad of a minimum of 18 players and maximum of 23 players, at least three of whom must be goalkeepers (Regulations Article 26.3).[3]
Group stage
The top two teams of each group and the two best third-placed teams qualified for the quarter finals.[3]
Tiebreakers
Teams were ranked according to points (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 (Regulations Article 7.3):[3]
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;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are tied and they met in the last round of the group;
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);
^India failed to name the required 13 players and were unable to play their match of the group stage against Chinese Taipei due to them having only fewer than 13 players left with the remaining team members testing positive for COVID-19. They were considered to have withdrawn from the competition, and all previous matches played by them shall be considered "null and void" and would not be considered in determining the final group rankings.[40]
The top two teams qualified for the quarter finals. Due to the withdrawal of India in group A, results against the fourth-placed teams of each group B and C were not counted in determining the ranking of the third-placed teams.
For the first time in the tournament's history, prize money was awarded to the top four teams of the tournament. The champions would receive US$1 million, the runners-up receive US$500,000 while the losing semi-finalists each receive US$150,000.[42] In addition, five percent of the prize money earned by the champions and runners-up would be kept and issued to the AFC Dream Asia Foundation to fund social responsibility activities.[3]
Play-offs
The format of the play-offs round depended on the performance of Australia, who qualified automatically for the World Cup as hosts.[43] Since Australia was eliminated in the quarter finals, the play-offs format was for the remaining three quarter-final losers to play a single round-robin play-off. The best team after three matches advanced to the World Cup, and the remaining two teams entered the inter-confederation play-offs.
Five teams from the AFC qualified for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, apart from co-hosts Australia which qualified automatically, while two teams advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.[44]
1 Australia qualified as a member of the OFC in 1995, 1999 and 2003.
Marketing
Logo
The official logo for the tournament was unveiled by the AFC and the local organizing committee on 20 July 2021. The logo features the AFC Women's Asian Cup trophy at the center, with a "swirl" surrounding the trophy "inspired by the national flags and colors of playing kits in Asia, and the iconic stadiums in which the AFC Women’s Asian Cup is played in and celebrates cultural diversity and the unwavering support and enthusiasm of fans for their national teams". The logo also contains elements inspired by the tournament host country. The maroon colour of the logo is inspired by the art of the Warli people, a tribe native to the northern Western Ghats in the tournament's host state of Maharashtra. Red and maroon colours are often used as the base of Warli paintings. The use of silver in the logo is inspired by the "importance of silver jewelry in Indian households and the beauty and elegance of the precious metal".[45]
^"Thailand loses right to host tournaments". Bangkok Post. Bangkok Post Public Co. Ltd. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 25 November 2021. The country has also been denied the right to display its national flag at any such events (international football events).
^ abcdefg"WAC - Where to watch". AFC Women's Asian Cup 2022. Asian Football Confederation. Archived from the original on 18 January 2022. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
