Thursday’s official draw will determine the Philippine women’s national football team opponents for the first round of the 2024 Paris Olympics qualifying.
The official draw will be conducted at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The first round of the Asian qualifiers to the women’s Olympic football tournament will see 26 teams vying for two spots.
Ranked No. 53 in the world, the Filipinas are in Pot 1 in the draw together with Vietnam, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Myanmar, Uzbekistan and India.
The 26 teams will be divided into five groups of four and two groups of three, vying in a one-round league format in a centralized venue from April 3 to 11.
Only the top teams from the seven groups will advance to the next round, where they will join the five highest-seeded teams in DPR Korea, Japan, Australia, China PR, and Korea Republic.
From the 12 teams in the second round, only the three group winners and the best second placer will move on to the home-and-away playoff matches for the two spots to the Olympics.
The seeds for the first round draw are based on the latest FIFA women’s world ranking released on December 9, 2022, while the participants who do not feature in the ranking table are listed as non-ranked teams.
The Philippines reached the second round of qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, before bowing out following a loss to Chinese-Taipei.
Based on their respective rankings, the 26 teams will have their names drawn from four seeding pots, as below:
Pot 1 (teams ranked 6-12): Vietnam, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Myanmar, Uzbekistan, Philippines, India.
Pot 2 (13-19): Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Nepal, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia
Pot 3 (20-26): Palestine, Singapore, Turkmenistan, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste.
Pot 4 (27-30 + 1 non-ranked team): Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, Bhutan, Afghanistan.
