2015 AFC U-16 Women's Championship qualification explained

The 2015 AFC U-16 Women's Championship qualification was a women's under-16 football competition which decided the participating teams of the 2015 AFC U-16 Women's Championship. Players born between 1 January 1999 and 31 December 2001 were eligible to compete in the tournament.^[1]

A total of eight teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including Japan, North Korea, China PR (hosts), and Thailand, who qualified directly as the top four finishers of the 2013 AFC U-16 Women's Championship.

The top two teams of the final tournament qualified for the 2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Jordan (besides Jordan who qualified automatically as hosts).^[2]

Draw

The draw for the qualifiers was held on 17 June 2014 at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur.^[3] A total of 21 AFC member national teams entered the qualifying stage and were drawn into four groups.

• West Zone had 12 entrants from Central Asia, South Asia and West Asia, where they were drawn into two groups of six teams.
• East Zone had 9 entrants from ASEAN and East Asia (excluding direct qualifiers Japan, North Korea, China, and Thailand), where they were drawn into one group of five teams and one group of four teams.

The teams were seeded according to their performance in the previous season in 2013.

	width=15%	Pot 1	width=15%	Pot 2	width=15%	Pot 3	width=20%	Pot 4	width=20%	Pot 5	width=15%	Pot 6
West Zone	valign=top		valign=top		valign=top		valign=top		valign=top		valign=top
East Zone	valign=top		valign=top		valign=top		valign=top	1	valign=top		valign=top

Did not enter
West Zone
East Zone

Notes

¹ Non-FIFA member, ineligible for World Cup.

Format

In each group, teams played each other once at a centralised venue. The four group winners qualified for the final tournament.

Tiebreakers

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers would be applied in the following order:^[1]

1. Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
2. Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
3. Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
4. Goal difference in all the group matches;
5. Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches;
6. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play;
7. Fewer score calculated according to the number of yellow and red cards received in the group matches (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card);
8. Drawing of lots.

Groups

The matches were played between 4–8 October 2014 for Group C; 5–9 October 2014 for Group D; 15–23 October 2014 for Group B; 22–25 December 2014 for Group A.

Group A

• All matches were initially to be held in Palestine, but were postponed.
• After the withdrawal of four teams, the two remaining teams played two matches against each other, both held in Bahrain.
• Times listed were UTC+3.

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Group B

• All matches were held in Bangladesh.
• Times listed were UTC+6.

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Group C

• All matches were held in Malaysia.
• Times listed were UTC+8.

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Group D

• All matches were held in Malaysia.
• Times listed were UTC+8.

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Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament2
			(2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013)
			(2007, 2009, 2011, 2013)
			(2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013)
			(2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013)
			(2013)
			(2013)
			(2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013)
			(2005, 2009, 2013)

² Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.

Goalscorers

10 goals

• Liang Kai-jou

8 goals

• Fatemeh Geraeli
• Fatemeh Ghasemi
• Shahnoza Kurbonova

7 goals

• Roja Devi

6 goals

• Anushka Samuel

4 goals

• Ashlee Brodigan
• Sanjida Akhter
• Thin Thin Yu
• Dildora Ergasheva

3 goals

• Eliza Ammendolia
• Chen Yu-chieh
• Sushmita Bardhan
• Nour Zoqash
• Lim Su-bin
• Maftuna Panjieva

2 goals

• Melina Ayres
• Joey Cartwright
• Panagiota Petratos
• Lipi Akhter
• Bipasha Mali
• Premi Chiru
• Jabamani Tudu
• Fatemeh Hosseini
• Tasneem Abulrob
• Tasnim Isleem
• Hnin Kalyar Ko
• Kay Zin Myint
• Itsuko Bacatan
• Joyce Semacio
• Eom Keun-byeol
• Gwon Hui-seon
• Ju Yee-un
• Yang Hyeon-ji
• Ruzikhon Askarova
• Zarina Boboeva
• Feruza Bobokhujaeva
• Nguyễn Thị Quỳnh
• Nguyễn Thị Tuyết Ngân

1 goal

• Hannah Bourke
• Grace Maher
• Adriana Taranto
• Krishna Rani
• Song Channa
• Yon Yeurn
• Huang Yu-tzu
• Eva Panna
• Hajar Dabbaghi
• Leen Al-Btoush
• Jeeda Al-Naber
• Luna Sahloul
• Yasmeen Zabian
• July Kyaw
• Khine Thazin Oo
• Mikhaela Jumawan
• Lindsay Whaley
• Im So-jeong
• Park Hye-jeong
• Song Bo-ram
• Yang Seo-yeong
• Naeema Juma
• Dilnoza Utamova
• Nguyễn Thị Nga
• Nguyễn Thị Nụ
• Phạm Thu Hiền

Own goal

• Amna Fahad (playing against Jordan)

^[4]

External links

• AFC U-16 Women's Championship, the-AFC.com

Notes and References

1. Web site: Regulations AFC U-16 Women’s Championship 2015. AFC.
2. Web site: Decisions taken by the FIFA Executive Committee concerning women's competitions in 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20140712053521/http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/administration/02/38/35/13/circularno.1428-decisionstakenbythefifaexecutivecommitteeconcerningwomenscompetitions2016%5fneutral.pdf. dead. July 12, 2014. FIFA. 23 June 2014.
3. Web site: Twenty-one teams out for U-16 women's tickets. AFC. 17 June 2014.
4. Web site: Top Goal Scorers (by Stage) – 2015 AFC U-16 Women's Championship Qualifiers. AFC.com.