Nanjing to host AFC U-16 Women’s Championship

The AFC Women’s Committee, chaired by AFC Vice-President Australia’s Moya Dodd, decided to award the hosting rights to Nanjing at its year-end meeting at the AFC House here on Monday. Nanjing hosted the last edition of the championship in 2011, which was won by Japan.

At the outset, AFC Acting President Zhang Jilong commended the members for the performance of Asian women’s teams’ at the world level.

Japan won the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics and finished third in the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup while DPR Korea finished as the runners-up in the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup held in Azerbaijan.

“Asian women once again showed that we are on top of the world. The success story of Asian women’s football continued this year and the credit goes to all the members of this committee,” Jilong said.

“There is no doubt that Asian women’s football is one of the best in the world and our women made us proud at the Olympics and the FIFA events. I would like to ask the members to work together for further development of women’s football in the continent.”

Chairperson Moya Dodd said there was still much to look forward to in the coming years.

“There is a great deal to look forward to in Asian women’s football. As you all know Asia has been allotted five berths in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup to be held in Canada,” she said.

“It is a great chance for our teams to shine on the world stage as we will continue to be competitive in the youth competitions.”

FIFA decided to increase the number of teams from 16 to 24 in the next edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup and Asia’s quota was increased from three to five.

She also updated the members on the women’s football strategy of the continent.
The committee also decided to give automatic qualification to hosts of all AFC women’s competitions from 2015 onwards.

The members also deliberated on the hosts of the 2014 AFC Women’s Asian Cup and decided to make a decision in the next meeting in March 2013. The competition format and number of teams in the AFC women’s competitions were also discussed in the meeting.

All decisions of this committee need to be ratified by the AFC Executive Committee to take effect.