After lifting the Liberty A-League trophy and winning the Premiership, Sydney FC Women have been invited to participate in the 2023/24 AFC Women’s Club Championship.
This tournament will be contested by eight teams across Asia, with the Sky Blues being one of them.
Tonight, at 5:00pm Sydney time, they will learn their fate for the Group Stage as they head to either Uzbekistan or Thailand.
STREAM DRAW LIVE FROM 5:00PM AEST HERE
Here’s everything you need to know about the tournament, where the matches are being played and how it works.
What Is It?
The AFC Women’s Club Championship is a tournament hosted by the Asian Football Confederation, containing the best clubs from across Asia. This tournament is a pilot competition before the official launch of the Women’s Asian Champions League in 2024.
This is the first time that the tournament has had eight participants with past versions only having 4 or 5 teams.
This year’s edition will run from the 6th of November through to the 12th of November.
How It Works
For this tournament, the eight teams will be split into two groups of four, with each group in a central location of either Uzbekistan or Thailand.
All matches in each group will be played in the same stadium.
Sydney FC will play three matches across the tournament period, playing each team in the group once.
The winners of each group will move through to the final which may be organised in 2024.
Who’s In It
There are eight teams from eight nations represented in this year’s edition of the AFC Women’s Club Championship and are as follows:
| Team | Nation |
| Sydney FC | Australia |
| Hualien Women’s Football Team | Chinese Taipei |
| Bam Khatoon | Islamic Republic of Iran |
| Sree Gokulam Kerala FC | India |
| Urawa Red Ladies | Japan |
| Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women’s FC | Korea Republic |
| Bangkok FC | Thailand |
| FC Nasef | Uzbekistan |
Draw Principles
All eight teams in the draw have been seeded based on the ranking that their host countries received in the latest FIFA Women’s World Rankings. They have been seeded as follows:
| Team | Seeding |
| Sydney FC | 2 |
| Hualien Women’s Football Team | 4 |
| Bam Khatoon | 8 |
| Sree Gokulam Kerala FC | 7 |
| Urawa Red Ladies | 1 |
| Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women’s FC | 3 |
| Bangkok FC | 5 |
| FC Nasef | 6 |
With the seedings, they have been placed in the following pots:
Pot One – Urawa Red Ladies (Japan) & Sydney FC (Australia)
Pot Two – Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women’s FC (Korea Republic) & Hualien Women’s Football Team (Chinese Taipei)
Pot Three – Bangkok FC (Thailand) & FC Nasef (Uzbekistan)
Pot Four – Sree Gokulam Kerala FC (India) & Bam Khatoon (Islamic Republic of Iran)
The top two seeds will be placed into pot one, the next two in pot two and so on and so forth. Pot 4 will be drawn first, followed by pot 3, then 2 then 1.
Host nations Uzbekistan and Thailand cannot be drawn in the same group and no teams from the same pot can face each other.
The draw will be live-streamed here from 5:00pm AEST.
Further details around match streaming will be communicated in due course.
