Bangladesh women’s football team to play World Cup Qualifiers directly

Bangladesh women's football team will get direct opportunity to compete in FIFA Women's World Cup Qualifiers as the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) yesterday introduced a separate qualifying competition for 2031 Women's World Cup, according to a statement from the continental body.

The AFC announced it would create a three-round preliminary competition, starting in 2027, to determine the continent's qualifiers for the finals though the host nation for the 2031 tournament has not been decided yet.

AFC previously organised Women's World Cup Qualifiers with the teams being decided through performance in the Women's Asian Cup or Asian Games, but this time there will be a standalone competition that will give lower-ranked sides more opportunities to play against higher-ranked sides.

The new format will be held in three rounds with the bottom-ranked teams -- based on FIFA ranking – playing in the opening round. Subject to the number of entries, these teams will be grouped to compete in a single round-robin centralised league format.

Then the top teams, based on the group results, will advance to Round 2 which will feature 24 teams including the top eight ranked sides in line with FIFA ranking.

Teams will then be divided into six four-nation groups to face off in a single round-robin centralised league format with the top-two finishers advancing to the third round.

Three groups of four teams will then compete in a home-and-away group format with the number of qualifiers for the finals determined by the continent's allocation.

The next edition of the Women's World Cup will be played in Brazil in 2027, with the Women's Asian Cup -- to be hosted by Australia a year earlier -- acting as the continent's qualifiers for the finals.

A new two-phase qualifying competition for the 2029 edition of the Women's Asian Cup, to be played in Uzbekistan, has also been launched, meaning Bangladesh will get more competitive matches in coming days.

Round 1 will feature participating teams ranked ninth and below in the as the AFC aims to draw teams into eight groups of three or four, with the top 16 teams progressing to Round 2, subject to the number of entries.

Then, 16 teams will join the top eight FIFA-ranked sides and the 24-team second strong cast will be divided into six groups of four teams and the winner of each group and the five best second-placed team will advance to the finals of Women's Asia Cup.

Bangladesh, however, will miss the matches of Olympic Qualifiers with AFC abolishing the previous three-round qualifiers for Olympic Games by introducing a new format in which the top eight teams of Asian Women's Cup will battle for the right to reach the Olympic Games.