2017 AFC U-16 Women's Championship

2017 AFC U-16 Women's Championship
ฟุตบอลหญิงชิงชนะเลิศแห่งเอเชีย รุ่นอายุไม่เกิน 16 ปี 2017
Tournament details
Host country	Thailand
Dates	10–23 September
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	North Korea (3rd title)
Runners-up	South Korea
Third place	Japan
Fourth place	China
Tournament statistics
Matches played	16
Goals scored	69 (4.31 per match)
Attendance	6,276 (392 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Kim Kyong-yong (9 goals)
Best player(s)	Kim Kyong-yong
Fair play award	Japan

The 2017 AFC U-16 Women's Championship was the 7th edition of the AFC U-16 Women's Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the women's under-16 national teams of Asia. The tournament was held in Thailand between 10 and 23 September 2017,^[2] with a total of eight teams competing.

The top three teams of the tournament qualified for the 2018 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Uruguay as the AFC representatives.^[3]

Qualification

The draw for the qualifiers was held on 19 May 2016.^[4] Four teams qualified directly for the final tournament by their 2015 performance, while the other entrants competed in the qualifying stage for the remaining four spots (Thailand also participated in qualifying despite already qualified as hosts). The qualifiers were held from 25 August to 5 September 2016.^[5]

Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament.^[6]

Team	Qualified as	Appearance	Previous best performance
North Korea	2015 champions	6th	Champions (2007, 2015)
Japan	2015 runners-up	7th	Champions (2005, 2011, 2013)
China	2015 third place	7th	Runners-up (2005)
Thailand	2015 fourth place / Hosts	7th	Third place (2005)
Laos	Group A runners-up^{[note 1]}	1st	Debut
South Korea	Group B winners	7th	Champions (2009)
Bangladesh	Group C winners	2nd	Group stage (2005)
Australia	Group D winners	5th	Fourth place (2009)

Notes:

↑ Since the Group A winners Thailand already automatically qualified for the final tournament as hosts, Laos also qualified for the final tournament as runners-up.

Venues

The tournament was held in Chonburi, Chonburi Province, at the Chonburi Stadium and the IPE Chonburi Stadium.

Draw

The draw was held on 28 April 2017, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.^[7] The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams.^[8] The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2015 AFC U-16 Women's Championship final tournament and qualification, with the hosts Thailand automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.^[9]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Thailand (hosts) North Korea	Japan China	South Korea Australia	Bangladesh Laos

Squads

Players born between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2003 are eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team must register a squad of minimum 16 players and maximum 23 players, minimum two of whom must be goalkeepers (Regulations Articles 29.4 and 29.5).^[10]

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advance to the semi-finals.

Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 11.5):^[10]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are tied and they met in the last round of the group;
Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
Drawing of lots.

All times are local, ICT (UTC+7).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	China	3	2	1	0	15	3	+12	7	Knockout stage
2	South Korea	3	2	1	0	12	2	+10	7	Knockout stage
3	Thailand (H)	3	1	0	2	4	9	−5	3
4	Laos	3	0	0	3	0	17	−17	0

Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

10 September 2017

17:00

China	2–2	South Korea
Zhang Linyan 11' Tang Han 90+3'	Report	Hwang Ah-hyeon 59' Kim Bit-na 68'

IPE Chonburi Stadium, Chonburi

Attendance: 95

Referee: Fusako Kajiyama (Japan)

10 September 2017