The 2020 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament was the 5th edition of the AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the quadrennial international football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to determine which women's national teams from Asia qualify for the Olympic football tournament.
The top two teams of the tournament qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics women's football tournament in Japan as the AFC representatives, together with Japan (which already qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics as the host nation, and did not participate in the qualifying stage).
Of the 47 AFC member associations, a total of 25 AFC member national teams entered the qualifying stage. The format is as follows:
Teams are ranked according to the following criteria (Regulations for the 2020 Olympic Football Tournaments, Article 19.2 and 19.3):
Play-off ties are played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the aggregate score is tied after the second leg, the away goals rule is applied, and if still level, extra time is played. The away goals rule is again applied after extra time, and if still level, the penalty shoot-out is used to determine the winner (Regulations for the 2020 Olympic Football Tournaments, Article 19.6).
The draw for the first round of the qualifiers was held on 2 August 2018 at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. All first round hosts were appointed after the draw.
The first round was played between 4âÂÂ13 November 2018.
<section begin=Group 1A /> <section end=Group 1A />
<section begin=Group 1B /> <section end=Group 1B />
<section begin=Group 1C /> <section end=Group 1C />
<section begin=Group 1D />
<section end=Group 1D />
Due to groups having different number of teams after withdrawals, the results against the fourth-placed and fifth-placed teams in four-team and five-team groups were not considered for this ranking.
The draw for the second round of the qualifiers was held on 13 February 2019, 16:00 MYT (), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. For the second round, the twelve teams were drawn into three groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their latest FIFA Rankings. The three teams which originally indicated their intention to serve as qualification group hosts (Myanmar, Palestine and Uzbekistan) prior to the draw were drawn into separate groups.
The second round was played between 3âÂÂ9 April 2019.
<section begin=Group 2A /> <section end=Group 2A />
<section begin=Group 2B /> <section end=Group 2B />
<section begin=Group 2C /> <section end=Group 2C />
The draw for the third round of the qualifiers was held on 18 October 2019, 16:00 MYT (), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. For the third round, the eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their latest FIFA Rankings. The two teams which originally indicated their intention to serve as qualification group hosts prior to the draw (China and South Korea) were drawn into separate groups (this was already ensured due to them being in the same pot).
The third round was scheduled to be played between 3âÂÂ9 February 2020. However, the schedule of Group B was extended to 3âÂÂ13 February 2020 due to a shift for the Group B hosts to Australia and the quarantine requirements of members of the China national team as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
<section begin=Group 3A /> <section end=Group 3A />
<section begin=Group 3B /> <section end=Group 3B />
The play-off round was scheduled for 6 March 2020 (first legs hosted by third round group winners) and 11 March 2020 (second legs hosted by third round group runners-up). However, only one of the two ties was played as scheduled.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in China, the home leg of China was moved to Campbelltown Stadium in Sydney, Australia instead of in China. The home leg of South Korea was originally scheduled to be played at Yongin Citizen Sports Park in Yongin, but had been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea. The Korea Football Association had urged that it must be played in South Korean territory even if the match is played behind closed doors, while the Chinese Football Association had urged that it must be switched to a neutral venue such as Australia due to the re-entry ban to Chinese nationals by the Australian Federal government. On 28 February 2020, the AFC announced both legs were rescheduled to 9 and 14 April 2020. On 9 March 2020, FIFA and AFC announced that play-off matches between South Korea and China were further postponed to 4 and 9 June 2020. On 27 May 2020, FIFA and AFC confirmed that play-off matches between South Korea and China would be postponed to 19 and 24 February 2021, as the Olympics had been postponed to July 2021. On 2 February 2021, FIFA and AFC announced that play-off matches between South Korea and China were further postponed to 8 and 13 April 2021. On 3 March 2021, FIFA and AFC confirmed the venues and time for the play-off matches between South Korea and China.
The two play-off round winners qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics. <section begin=Group 4 />
<section end=Group 4 />
Australia won 7âÂÂ1 on aggregate.
China won 4âÂÂ3 on aggregate.
The following three teams from the AFC qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympic women's football tournament, including Japan which qualified as the hosts.
In total,