2019 AFC U-16 Women's Championship

The 2019 AFC U-16 Women's Championship was the 8th edition of the AFC U-16 Women's Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the women's under-16 national teams of Asia. The tournament was held in Thailand between 15 and 28 September 2019,[1] with a total of eight teams competing.

2019 AFC U-16 Women's Championship
ฟุตบอลหญิงชิงชนะเลิศแห่งเอเชีย รุ่นอายุไม่เกิน 16 ปี 2019
Tournament details
Host countryThailand
Dates15–28 September
Teams8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)2 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions Japan (4th title)
Runners-up North Korea
Third place China
Fourth place Australia
Tournament statistics
Matches played16
Goals scored63 (3.94 per match)
Attendance2,689 (168 per match)
Top scorer(s)Japan Maika Hamano (5 goals)
Best player(s)Japan Hanon Nishio
Fair play award North Korea
2017

The top two teams of the tournament would have qualified for the 2021 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup (originally 2020 but postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic) in India as the AFC representatives, besides India who would have automatically qualified as hosts.[2] However, FIFA announced on 17 November 2020 that this edition of the World Cup would be cancelled.[3]

This edition was the last to be played as an under-16 tournament, as the AFC have agreed to the proposal for switching the tournament from under-16 to under-17 starting from 2022.[4]

North Korea were the defending champions, but were defeated 2–1 in the final by Japan.

Qualification

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Four teams qualified directly for the final tournament: the hosts and the top three of 2017. The other four spots were determined by the qualifying stage.

A total of 30 teams entered the qualifying stage. Due to the increased number of teams, two qualification rounds were scheduled for the first time. The first round was scheduled for 15–23 September 2018,[5] and the second round was scheduled for 23 February – 3 March 2019.[6]

Qualified teams

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The following teams have qualified for the tournament.

Team Qualified as Appearance Previous best performance
  Thailand Hosts 8th Third place (2005)
  North Korea 2017 champions 7th Champions (2007, 2015, 2017)
  South Korea 2017 runners-up 8th Champions (2009)
  Japan 2017 third place 8th Champions (2005, 2011, 2013)
  Australia Second round Group A winners 6th Fourth place (2009)
  Vietnam Second round Group A runners-up 1st Debut
  China Second round Group B winners 8th Runners-up (2005)
  Bangladesh Second round Group B runners-up 3rd Group stage (2005, 2017)

Venues

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The matches are played at two venues, both at the Mueang Chonburi District in Chonburi Province.

Draw

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The draw was held on 23 May 2019, 15:30 ICT (UTC+7), at the Oakwood Hotel in Chonburi, Thailand.[7][8] The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2017 AFC U-16 Women's Championship final tournament and qualification, with the hosts Thailand automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.[9]

Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4
  1.   Thailand (hosts)
  2.   North Korea

Squads

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Players born between 1 January 2003 and 31 December 2005 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team must register a squad of minimum 16 players and maximum 23 players, minimum two of whom must be goalkeepers (Regulations Articles 24.1 and 24.2).[10]

Group stage

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The top two teams of each group advanced to the semi-finals.

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 are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 9.3):[10]

  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 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;
  5. Goal difference in all group matches;
  6. Goals scored in all group matches;
  7. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are tied and they meet 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.

All times are local, ICT (UTC+7).

Schedule
Matchday Dates Matches
Matchday 1 15–16 September 2019 1 v 4, 2 v 3
Matchday 2 18–19 September 2019 4 v 2, 3 v 1
Matchday 3 21–22 September 2019 1 v 2, 3 v 4

Group A

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1   Japan 3 2 1 0 17 0 +17 7 Knockout stage
2   Australia 3 1 2 0 8 3 +5 5
3   Thailand (H) 3 1 0 2 2 14 −12 3
4   Bangladesh 3 0 1 2 2 12 −10 1
Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
Japan  0–0  Australia
Report
Attendance: 223
Referee: Law Bik Chi (Hong Kong)
Thailand  1–0  Bangladesh
  • Thawanrat   59'
Report
Attendance: 300
Referee: Kim Yu-jeong (South Korea)

Bangladesh  0–9  Japan
Report
Attendance: 165
Referee: Mahnaz Zokaee (Iran)
Australia  6–1  Thailand
Report
Attendance: 250
Referee: Bùi Thị Thu Trang (Vietnam)

Thailand  0–8  Japan
Report
Attendance: 250
Referee: Kim Yu-jeong (South Korea)
Australia  2–2  Bangladesh
Report
Attendance: 172
Referee: Mahsa Ghorbani (Iran)

Group B

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1   North Korea 3 3 0 0 17 0 +17 9 Knockout stage
2   China 3 2 0 1 3 4 −1 6
3   South Korea 3 1 0 2 3 5 −2 3
4   Vietnam 3 0 0 3 0 14 −14 0
Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
North Korea  10–0  Vietnam
Report
Attendance: 105
Referee: Thein Thein Aye (Myanmar)
South Korea  0–2  China
Report
Attendance: 80
Referee: Mahsa Ghorbani (Iran)

China  0–4  North Korea
Report
Attendance: 119
Referee: Rebecca Durcau (Australia)
Vietnam  0–3  South Korea
Report
Attendance: 100
Referee: Asmita Manandhar (Nepal)

North Korea  3–0  South Korea
Report
Attendance: 80
Referee: Law Bik Chi (Hong Kong)
China  1–0  Vietnam
Report
Attendance: 83
Referee: Thein Thein Aye (Myanmar)

Knockout stage

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In the knockout stage, penalty shoot-out (no extra time) was used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Articles 12.1 and 12.2).[10]

Bracket

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Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
25 September – IPE Chonburi
 
 
  Japan2
 
28 September – Chonburi
 
  China0
 
  Japan2
 
25 September – IPE Chonburi
 
  North Korea1
 
  North Korea3
 
 
  Australia0
 
Third place match
 
 
28 September – Chonburi
 
 
  China2
 
 
  Australia1

Semi-finals

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Winners qualified for 2021 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.

North Korea  3–0  Australia
Report
Attendance: 150
Referee: Thein Thein Aye (Myanmar)

Japan  2–0  China
Report
Attendance: 152
Referee: Bùi Thị Thu Trang (Vietnam)

Third place match

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China  2–1  Australia
Report
Attendance: 180
Referee: Kim Yu-jeong (South Korea)

Final

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Japan  2–1  North Korea
Report
Attendance: 280
Referee: Law Bik Chi (Hong Kong)

Winners

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 Winner 2019 AFC U-16 Women's Championship 
 
Japan
Fourth title

Awards

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The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:

Top Goalscorer[11] Most Valuable Player[11] Fair Play award[11]
  Maika Hamano   Hanon Nishio   North Korea

Qualified teams for FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup

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The following three teams from AFC would have qualified for the 2021 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup before the tournament was cancelled.

All three teams qualified for the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, including India who qualified automatically as host.[12] On 16 March 2022, the AFC announced that China PR would replace North Korea as the AFC's representatives at the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.[13] On 16 August 2022, it was announced that the All India Football Federation, or AIFF, was suspended by FIFA due to undue influence from third parties. As a result, the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup was stripped from India, as FIFA planned to assess the next steps when it came to hosting the tournament.[14] On 27 August, FIFA lifted the suspension, thus giving back the hosting rights to India.[15]

Team Qualified on Previous appearances in FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup1
  India 15 March 2019[16] 0 (debut)
  Japan 25 September 2019[17] 6 (2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018)
  China 16 March 2022 2 (2012, 2014)
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Goalscorers

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There were 63 goals scored in 16 matches, for an average of 3.94 goals per match.

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

References

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  1. ^ "AFC Women's Football Committee recommends women's club competition". AFC. 20 April 2018.
  2. ^ "Bureau of the FIFA Council decisions on FIFA events". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 12 May 2020.
  3. ^ "Update on FIFA Club World Cup 2020 and women's youth tournaments". FIFA.com. 17 November 2020.
  4. ^ "AFC Women's Football Committee approves AFC Women's Club Championship". AFC. 27 September 2019.
  5. ^ "AFC Competitions Calendar 2018". AFC. 11 January 2018. Archived from the original on 14 February 2018.
  6. ^ "AFC Competitions Calendar 2019". AFC. 28 February 2018. Archived from the original on 16 February 2018.
  7. ^ "Asia's new faces set to discover path to glory". AFC. 22 May 2019.
  8. ^ "Draw sets up enticing matches". AFC. 23 May 2019.
  9. ^ "AFC U-16 Women's Championship Thailand 2019 Draw". YouTube. 23 May 2019.
  10. ^ a b c "AFC U-16 Women's Championship 2019 Competition Regulations". AFC. Archived from the original on 1 March 2018.
  11. ^ a b c "Nishio awarded Most Valuable Player, Hamano Top Scorer". AFC. 28 September 2019.
  12. ^ "AFC Women's Football Committee hails the successful restart of the Asian women's game". the-afc.com. Asian Football Confederation. 14 October 2021.
  13. ^ "Asia's representatives at FIFA women's competitions confirmed". the-afc.com. Asian Football Confederation. 16 March 2022.
  14. ^ "FIFA suspends All India Football Federation". FIFA.com. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
  15. ^ "FIFA lifts Indian federation ban, U-17 World Cup to go ahead as planned". Reuters. 26 August 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  16. ^ "FIFA Council decides on key steps for upcoming international tournaments". FIFA.com. 15 March 2019. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  17. ^ "Asian pair earn passage to world stage". FIFA.com. 25 September 2019. Archived from the original on 25 September 2019.
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