Tajikistan will host the first round of 2020 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament, according to Tajikistan Football Federation (TFF).
The first round, which is scheduled for November 4-13 this year, will take place in Dushanbe. Chinese Taipei, Singapore, Philippines, Tajikistan and Mongolia will compete in the first round.
The 2020 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament will be the 5th edition of the AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the quadrennial international football competition organized 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.
Japan already qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics as the host nation, but can participate in the qualifying stage.
A total of 25 AFC member national teams entered the qualifying stage. The format is as follows:
– First round: The highest-ranked six teams based on the FIFA Women's World Rankings (after excluding Japan from the rankings) at the time of the draw received byes to the third round. Teams ranked in the top five – Australia, North Korea, China PR, South Korea and Thailand received byes to the third round. Teams ranked in sixth and seventh Vietnam and Uzbekistan – received byes to the second round. The remaining 18 teams were drawn into two groups of five teams and two groups of four teams, with the teams seeded according to their FIFA Rankings. In each group, teams played each other once at a centralized venue. The group winners, runner-ups and two best third placed teams advanced to the second round.
– Second round: The twelve teams (two teams who entered this round and ten teams from the first round) were drawn into three groups of four teams. In each group, teams played each other once at a centralized venue. The group winners advanced to the third round.
– Third round: The eight teams (five teams who entered this round and the group winners from the second round) were drawn into two groups of four teams. In each group, teams played each other once at a centralized venue. The top two teams of each group advanced to the final round.
– Final round: The group winners played against the runner-ups of another group on a home-and-away basis. The two winners qualified for the Olympic Football Tournament.
