The Asian Football Confederation is all set to launch a Women’s Asian Champions League in 2023. The format and number of teams are undecided as of yet.
The Asian Football Confederation will launch a Women’s Asian Champions League in 2023, based on the model of the UEFA Champions League – as per an AFP report. However, the details are still rolling out and there is ambiguity around the number of teams plus the format of the proposed competition.
Asian women’s football is close to European women’s football in quality in the overall international football picture.
However, the lack of a continental competition for women’s club football means that Asia is behind Europe in that regard. The likes of Japan, China, and Australia continue contesting for the top honour in international competitions but lack a structured club competition for women footballers.
A women’s Asian Champions League will shape the structure of women’s football across Asia, laying out incentives for domestic leagues and clubs to invest in women’s football as well.
That is going to definitely boost women’s football,
said Bai Lili.
If we are organising a club competition, that means the participants need to meet the criteria for the club licensing, the leagues need to be well-organised. That is definitely going to help the domestic leagues. It will give exposure to the non-national team players. The level is quite uneven, the biggest job for us is to bridge the gap,
said Bai, adding barriers to women playing football include social stigma and different religious beliefs.
The AFC hosted the pilot edition of the Women’s Champions League in 2019 with participating clubs from four nations. South Korea, Australia, China, and Japan had one club each in the tournament.
Meanwhile, over in the men’s category, the Asian Champions League has expanded to a 40-team affair for the 2021-22 season. With a structured international division in Asian football, such as the likes of the Asian Women’s Cup, Bai feels that a Women Champions League adds further impetus to the popularity of women’s football in Asia.
Elsewhere, European club football has made significant advances in women’s football and it has been more than 20 years since its first edition of continental competition in Europe. If implemented, it can be assumed that Asia will take a longer time to adapt to a newer system of club football pertaining to female athletes.
