China will feature in the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup to be held in India from October 11 to 30 as it was named on Wednesday as replacement of North Korean team which has pulled out of the age-group showpiece.
The AFC’s Women’s Football Committee had on October 14 last year decided that in the case of withdrawals from the FIFA competitions, the next highest ranked team from the respective qualification events would represent Asia accordingly.
“The AFC notes the inability of the DPR Korea Football Association’s national age-group teams to compete in the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup India 2022 and FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Costa Rica 2022 respectively,” the Asian Football Confederation said on Wednesday.
“China PR, who finished third in the AFC U-16 Women’s Championship Thailand 2019, will join Japan and host India as the AFC’s three representatives at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup India 2022 scheduled to take place from October 11 to 30.”
Australia, who finished fourth in AFC U-19 Women’s Championship in 2019, will replace North Korea and join Japan and South Korea as Asia’s three representatives at the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica, which will be held from August 10 to 28.
India was originally selected to host the 2020 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup but the tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, India was announced as host of the next edition of the tournament in 2022.
Asia will be represented by host country and two other countries in the 16-team tournament. New Zealand has also qualified as representative of Oceania Football Confederation. The qualifying tournaments of other continents are either going on or yet to take place.