2025 AFC Women's Futsal Asian Cup explained

The 2025 AFC Women's Futsal Asian Cup will be the 3rd edition of AFC Women's Futsal Asian Cup, the international futsal championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the women's national teams of Asia. The tournament will be held between 7 and 18 May 2025.^[1]

The tournament will serve as the qualifying for the inaugural 2025 FIFA Futsal Women's World Cup in the Philippines.

Host selection

The following three football associations submitted their interest to host the tournament by the deadline.

• ^[2]

On 13 September 2024, the AFC Executive Committee ratified the AFC Futsal & Beach Soccer Committee's decisions to award the hosting rights of the 2025 AFC Women’s Futsal Asian Cup to the Chinese Football Association.^[3]

Qualification

See main article: 2025 AFC Women's Futsal Asian Cup qualification.

The host country and the top two teams of the previous tournament in 2018 AFC Women's Futsal Championship qualified automatically, while the other nine teams will be decided by qualification matches to be played in January 2025.^{[4] [5]}

Qualified teams

The following twelve teams qualified for the tournament:

Team	Method of qualification	Date of qualification	data-sort-type="number"	Finals appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
		13 September 2024	3rd	2018	(2018)
			3rd	2018	(2015, 2018)
			3rd	2018	(2015, 2018)

Draw

The 12 teams will be drawn into three groups of four teams, with seeding based on their FIFA Futsal World Ranking at the time of the draw. Teams' FIFA Futsal World Ranking as of October 2024 are shown in parentheses except for the team who is unranked, which will be denoted by (–).

The host will be automatically seeded to Pot 1 and placed into the first position of Group A.

width=25%	Pot 1	width=25%	Pot 2	width=25%	Pot 3	width=25%	Pot 4
(26; hosts) (9) (10)

Squads

Each team was required to registered a squad with a minimum of 14 players and a maximum of 25 players, at least two of whom had to be goalkeepers (Regulations Article 23).^[6]

Group stage

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):^[6]

1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
4. If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
5. Goal difference in all group matches;
6. Goals scored in all group matches;
7. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams were tied and they met in the last round of the group;
8. 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);
9. Drawing of lots.

Group C

Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary, except for the third place match where penalty shoot-out without extra time is used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Article 10).^[6]

Qualified teams for the 2025 FIFA Futsal Women's World Cup

As the host nation, the Philippines have secured their place in the World Cup, regardless of their results in the Asian Cup.^[7]

Should the Philippines advance to the semifinals, all other semifinalists will automatically qualify. However, if the Philippines do not reach the semifinals, then the top three teams—the winner, runner-up, and third-place finisher—will secure qualification for the 2025 FIFA Futsal Women's World Cup.

The following four teams from AFC qualified for the 2025 FIFA Futsal Women's World Cup.

Team	Qualified on	Previous appearances in the FIFA Futsal Women's World Cup
	15 May 2024	0 (debut)
	May 2025	0 (debut)
	May 2025	0 (debut)
	May 2025	0 (debut)

Notes and References

1. Web site: AFC Futsal & Beach Soccer Committee approves competition formats and dates. 27 April 2024. the-afc.com. Asian Football Confederation. 3 September 2024.
2. Web site: 呼和浩特通过申办亚洲杯女足赛事推进五人制足球发展. zh. Hohhot promotes the development of futsal through its bid to host the AFC Women's Asian Cup.. 29 August 2024. inews.nmgnews.com.cn. 3 September 2024.
3. Web site: AFC unveils breakthrough reforms to strengthen Women’s National Team Competitions. 13 September 2024. the-afc.com. Asian Football Confederation. 13 September 2024.
4. futsal1958. 1829303273477767535. 2025 Women's Asian Cup: 21 Teams Competing for World Cup Spots. Steve Harris. Steve Harris
5. Web site: 日本女子代表: AFC女子フットサルアジアカップ2025の開催が決定！初のW杯開催に向け「出場枠3枠」を懸けた戦いが、2025年5月に開幕. ja. 【Japan Women's National Team】The host of the AFC Women's Futsal Asian Cup 2025 has been decided! The battle for the "three spots" in the inaugural World Cup will commence in May 2025.. 29 April 2024. f-sal.com. 3 September 2024.
6. Web site: AFC Women's Futsal Asian Cup 2025 Competition Regulations. Asian Football Confederation.
7. Web site: Preparations for the FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup 2025 have begun. 14 July 2024. pff.org.ph. Philippines Football Federation. 3 September 2024.