Iran in Pot 4 of Women’s Olympic Tournament Asian Qualifiers Round 2

The stage is set for the Round 2 official draw ceremony, which will take place at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Thursday.

The field has been whittled down to 12 teams, comprising the seven group winners from Round 1 of qualifying and the five highest-seeded teams, who received automatic byes into Round 2.

Uzbekistan (Group A), Iran (Group B), Vietnam (Group C), Thailand (Group D), Philippines (Group E), Chinese Taipei (Group F) and India (Group G) came through in Round 1, which took place between April 1 and 11 2023, to join big guns Australia, China PR, DPR Korea, Japan and Korea Republic in their quest to make it to Paris.

They will be divided into three groups for Round 2, which will take place between October 23 and November 1, 2023. Each group will play a single round-robin league format in one of three centralized venues – Australia, China PR or Uzbekistan. These three Host Member Associations (MAs) will be drawn into separate groups.

Four teams – the three group winners and the best-ranked runners-up – will then progress to Round 3 to play two pairs of home and away matches, slated for February 24 and 28, 2024, with the eventual winners taking the two spots reserved for Asia in the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament Paris 2024.

Based on the latest FIFA Women’s World Ranking released in March 2023, the 12 teams will have their names drawn from four seeding pots, as below:

Pot 1 (teams ranked 1-3): Australia, Japan, China

Pot 2 (4-6): Korea Republic, Vietnam, Chinese Taipei

Pot 3 (7-9): Thailand, Philippines, Uzbekistan

Pot 4 (10, 11 + 1 non-ranked): India, Iran, DPR Korea