An AFC Women's Club Championship game between Jiangsu Suning Ladies Football Club of China Players and Melbourne Victory of Australia at Yongin Citizens Park in Yongin, South Korea, November 28, 2019. /CFP
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) plans to launch women's champions league in 2023, revealed the Asian football governing body this week.
"That is going to definitely boost women's football," said Bai Lili, AFC's head of women's football. "If we are organizing a club competition, that means the participants need to meet the criteria for the club licensing, the leagues need to be well organized. That is definitely going to help the domestic leagues. It will give exposure to the non-national team players."
Bai attended the women's Olympic football tournament on behalf of China in Athens in 2004.
Women's football has been developing well in Asia and multiple national teams have accomplished success in international events. For example, China won women's football silver medal in the Summer Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 and were runner-up in the FIFA Women's World Cup in the U.S. in 1999. Japan won the World Cup title in 2011.
Rikako Kobayashi (C) of Nippon TV Beleza controsl the ball in the AFC Women's Club Championship game against Jiangsu Suning Ladies Football Club at Yongin Citizens Sports Park, November 26, 2019. /CFP
By contrast, women's football has not been doing so well at the club level, which led to temporary shortage of quality talent. No Asian team reached quarterfinals in the World Cup in France in 2019, which was the first time that's happened since the event began in 1991.
The AFC did not make an impulsive decision in planning a women's champions league. Back in 2019, it already held the first Women's Club Championship in South Korea as a pilot tournament. Teams from the hosts, China, Japan and Australia participated in the competitions. The event will happen in 2021 and 2022 as well.
Details about the first women's champions league are still in discussion, according to Bai. It's unclear how many teams will attend the debut edition in what kind of format. In Men's AFC Champions League, a total of 40 teams are divided into east and west zones, competing first in group stage and then in knockout games before the winners of each zone meet in the final game.
The UEFA launched the first Women's Champions League in 2001 in a cup format. Bai hopes that an AFC women's champions league will further promote women's football in Asia the same way it has in Europe.