The AFC have announced the pots for the draw for the preliminary round of qualifiers for the 2023 Women’s World Cup. 28 teams will compete for eight places at the Women’s Asian Cup. The draw will be held at 08:30 UTC on THU 24 JUN 2021 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The 28 teams in the preliminary round – a larger pool of entrants than ever before – will be drawn into eight groups, four containing four teams each and four containing three teams each. Teams will play each of the other teams in their group once, and the first placed team in each group will advance to the Women’s Asian Cup. The preliminary round will be played MON 13-SAT 25 SEP 2021.

Seven teams [Bangladesh, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan] applied to host the preliminary groups. They will host their respective groups, and one team in the remaining group will be selected to host at a later date.

India, as host nation, advance automatically to the Women’s Asian Cup. Australia, China PR, and Japan have also earned byes to the tournament. Australia have automatically qualified for the Women’s World Cup as joint host nation.

• Host pot: Bangladesh, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
• Pot 1: Jordan, Korea DPR, Korea Rep, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam
• Pot 2: Bahrain, Hong Kong, Iran, Palestine, Singapore, United Arab Emirates
• Pot 3: Afghanistan, Guam, Iraq, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Turkmenistan