Ho Chi Minh City enters the group stage of the 2025/26 AFC Women's Club Championship

With the achievement of reaching the semi-finals last season, Ho Chi Minh City Women's Club - the only representative of Vietnam, was given a special privilege to go straight to the group stage of the 2025/26 Asian Women's Club Championship, without having to compete in the preliminary round.

Ho Chi Minh City Women's Club in the 2024/25 season. (Photo: VFF)

According to the latest announcement from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Ho Chi Minh City and the 6 teams with the highest achievements in the 2024/25 season, including: Melbourne City (Australia), Suwon FC Women (Korea), Tokyo Verdy Beleza (Japan), defending champion Wuhan Jiangda Women (China), Bam Khatoon (Iran) and a representative of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will participate in the group stage this season. They will join the 5 strongest teams that passed the preliminary round to form 12 teams competing in the group stage.

The 2025/26 season marks a major expansion of the competition, with the number of participating clubs increasing from 21 to 26. Of these, 19 clubs will start their journey from the preliminary round – including first-time participants such as Cambodia, North Korea, Guam, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia.

The preliminary round draw was held by AFC on the afternoon of July 3. 19 teams were divided into 5 groups (4 groups of 4 teams and 1 group of 3 teams), competing in a round-robin format at centralized locations from August 23 to 31, 2025. The top five teams in each group will qualify for the official group stage.

After the preliminary round ends, the group stage draw will take place in September 2025. The group stage matches are expected to begin in November, promising to bring the top competitions of Asian women's football.

Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/thanh-pho-ho-chi-minh-vao-thang-vong-bang-giai-vo-dich-cac-cau-lac-bo-nu-chau-a-2025-26-20250704090313428.htm