Single-legged tournaments from quarterfinals onwards FIFA rankings to be used to distribute tickets to knockout stages 'AFC License' will not be implemented until the 2028-2029 season Women's Asian Cup to be held in 2029 instead of 2030 after 2026

A view of the AFC Women's Asian Cup match between South Korea and China in February 2022.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Champions League will feature three groups of four teams when it launches in the 2024-2025 season.

The AFC said on Tuesday that its Women's Football Committee met in Sydney, 섯다Australia, to decide on the format for the Women's Champions League, which will see 12 participating teams divided into three groups.

The decision is subject to ratification by the AFC Executive Committee, the organization's governing body.

The eight teams that make it through the group stage will play a single-legged tournament from the quarterfinals to the final to determine the winner.

The teams that advance directly to the knockout stages will be determined using individual countries' FIFA world rankings, the AFC added.

If a team does not receive a ticket to the knockout stage based on its ranking, it will have to go through a qualifying tournament.

The qualifiers will run for one week from August 25-31 next year. This will be followed by the main group stage from October 6-12.

The quarterfinals will be played on March 22-23, 2025, and the semifinals and final on May 21-24.

In addition, the AFC has decided to delay the application of the club licenses required for teams to participate in the Champions League until after the 2028-2029 season.

Starting with the 2028-2029 season, clubs that do not meet the licensing criteria will be ineligible to participate in the competition.

Given the different levels of development of women's soccer leagues around the world, the idea is to allow time for institutional improvements.

AFC reveals how the Women's Champions League will be run

This means that teams from the WK League of women's professional soccer will also have the opportunity to compete in the invitational tournament.

There are currently no teams in the WK League that meet the AFC's criteria, such as running a girls' team, participating in competitions, and running a secretariat with "sufficient staffing," so it's a breath of fresh air that the licensing system has been suspended.

Instead, they have been tasked with overhauling their internal and external systems to meet the standards by the 2028-2029 season.

"The reality of each club's situation is not easy, but we will discuss with the Korea Football Association to find a way to meet the AFC club license standards," 온라인섯다 said Kim Jeong-sun, secretary general of the Korean Women's Football Association.

As part of this effort, the association and the federation established the WK League Club License, which has been in effect since February this year.

It is a significant relaxation of the AFC's standards in consideration of club conditions, such as 'encouraging' girls' teams to participate in official competitions, and the intention is to build on this and improve the deficiencies in the future.