2019 AFC U-19 Women's Championship qualification

2019 AFC U-19 Women's Championship qualification
Tournament details
Host countries	First round:; Lebanon (Group A); Thailand (Group B); Kyrgyzstan (Group C); Tajikistan (Group D); Vietnam (Group E); Myanmar (Group F); Second round:; TBC (Group A); TBC (Group B)
Dates	First round:; 20–28 October 2018; Second round:; 22–30 April 2019
Teams	27 (from 1 confederation)

The 2019 AFC U-19 Women's Championship qualification is a women's under-19 football competition which decides the participating teams of the 2019 AFC U-19 Women's Championship.

A total of eight teams qualify to play in the final tournament held in Thailand,^[1] four of which are decided by qualification.

Draw

Of the 47 AFC member associations, a total of 30 teams entered the competition, with Japan, North Korea, and China PR, automatically qualified for the final tournament by their position as the top three teams of the 2017 AFC U-19 Women's Championship and thus not participating in qualification. The final tournament hosts Thailand, despite having automatically qualified for the final tournament, entered to participate in qualification. As a result, a total of 27 teams entered qualification. Due to the increased number of teams, two qualification rounds were scheduled for the first time.^[2]

The draw for the qualifiers was held on 30 May 2018, 16:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.^[3] For the first round, the 27 teams were drawn into six groups: three groups of five teams and three groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2017 AFC U-19 Women's Championship final tournament and qualification. The following restrictions were also applied:^[4]

The four teams which indicated their intention to serve as qualification group hosts prior to the draw were drawn into separate groups.

Automatically qualified for final tournament
Japan North Korea China PR

Participating in qualification
Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4 (unranked)
Australia South Korea Uzbekistan Thailand (H, Q) Vietnam (H)* Myanmar (H)	Chinese Taipei Jordan Iran India Hong Kong Kyrgyzstan (H)	Northern Mariana Islands (W) Tajikistan (H) Palestine (W)	Afghanistan (W) Bangladesh Guam Laos Lebanon (H)* Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Nepal Pakistan Singapore United Arab Emirates

Notes

Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.
(H): Qualification first round group hosts (* Lebanon and Vietnam chosen as group hosts after the draw)
(Q): Automatically qualified for final tournament regardless of first round qualification results, and do not advance to second round
(W): Withdrew after draw

Did not enter

Bahrain
Bhutan
Brunei
Cambodia
Indonesia
Iraq
Kuwait
Macau
Oman
Philippines
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Sri Lanka
Syria
Timor-Leste
Turkmenistan
Yemen

Re-draw

Due to the withdrawal of Afghanistan and Northern Mariana Islands after the draw, there were only three teams left in Group E, but still five teams in Groups B and C. As a result, AFC decided to hold a re-draw for the qualification first round to maintain the balance of number of teams across all groups (one group of five teams and five groups of four teams). The re-draw was held at the AFC House on 30 August 2018. In the re-draw, unranked teams from Group B (Pakistan, Nepal, Singapore) and Group C (United Arab Emirates, Guam, Maldives) were placed in a pot and the first ball drawn would be moved to Group E. Singapore was drawn and as a result moved from Group B to Group E.^[5]^[6]

Player eligibility

Players born between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2004 are eligible to compete in the tournament.^[7]

Format

In each group, teams play each other once at a centralised venue.

In the first round, the six group winners and the two best runners-up advance to the second round. However, the final tournament hosts Thailand do not advance to the second round. If they win their group, the runner-up of their group advances to the second round, or if they are among the two best runners-up, the third best runner-up advances to the second round.
In the second round, the two group winners and the two group runners-up qualify for the final tournament to join the four automatically qualified teams.

Tiebreakers

Teams are 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):^[7]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
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;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are tied and they met in the last round of the group;
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);
Drawing of lots.

First round

The first round is scheduled for 20–28 October 2018.^[8]

Schedule
Matchday	Group C		Groups A,B,D,E		Group F
Matchday	Dates	Matches	Dates	Matches	Dates	Matches
Matchday 1	20 October 2018	3 v 2, 5 v 4	24 October 2018	1 v 4, 2 v 3	24 October 2018	2 v 3
Matchday 2	22 October 2018	4 v 1, 5 v 3	26 October 2018	4 v 2, 3 v 1	26 October 2018	3 v 1
Matchday 3	24 October 2018	1 v 5, 2 v 4	28 October 2018	1 v 2, 3 v 4	28 October 2018	1 v 2
Matchday 4	26 October 2018	2 v 5, 3 v 1	—		—
Matchday 5	28 October 2018	4 v 3, 1 v 2	—		—

Group A

All matches are held in Lebanon.
Times listed are UTC+3 on 24 and 26 October, UTC+2 on 28 October 2018.

Pos	Team	Qualification
1	Australia	Second round
2	Hong Kong	Possible Second round
3	Lebanon (H)
4	Mongolia
5	Afghanistan	Withdrew

First match(es) will be played on 24 October 2018. Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers
(H) Host.

24 October 201811:30

Australia	v	Mongolia
	Report