The contenders for the AFC U20 Women’s Asian Cup™ Thailand 2026 crown will discover their Group Stage fate at the Final Draw for the 12th edition of the tournament on November 10 (Monday) at 6pm AEDT in Bangkok.
Set to take place at the Grand Fourwings Bangkok, the ceremony will split the 12-strong cast into three groups, who will do battle between April 1 and 8 2026, in Thailand, which is serving as hosts for the second time after 2019.
Eight group winners and the three best-ranked runners-up came through the Qualifiers in August to join Thailand, including four teams that have never missed a single Finals: reigning champions DPR Korea, China PR, Japan and Korea Republic.
Four more teams will also return from the previous edition in 2024—Australia, Chinese Taipei, Uzbekistan and Vietnam—while Bangladesh are set to make their debut and become the 20th side to feature in the Finals.
The seedings are based on a points system derived from the teams’ final rankings across the previous three editions of the Finals, with the points from each edition weighted progressively as follows:
The pot allocations for the draw, with Thailand seeded top as the Host Association and rankings in brackets, are as below:
- Pot 1: Thailand, DPR Korea (1), Japan (2)
- Pot 2: Australia (3), Korea Republic (5), China PR (6)
- Pot 3: Vietnam (7), Uzbekistan (8), Chinese Taipei (9)
- Pot 4: India (10), Jordan (11), Bangladesh (12)
The top four finishers at the Finals will qualify for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup Poland 2026, where DPR Korea are the current holders.
The CommBank Young Matildas finished in third place at the 2024 edition of the tournament.
