Abu Dhabi Sports Club in Group 1 of AFC Women’s Champions League

Today, the draw for the first edition of the AFC Women’s Champions League 2024-2025 was held at the headquarters of the Asian Football Confederation in Kuala Lumpur, in which 21 teams participate, and the competitions will start next August.
The draw placed Abu Dhabi Women’s Sports Club in Group 1, which also includes Al-Nassr of Saudi Arabia, the host of the group qualifiers, Myawaddy (Myanmar) from the first level teams, and Young Elephants (Laos) from the second level teams.
Bhutan, Jordan, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia will host one group each, and the competition will be held in a split league system from August 25 to 31, with 13 clubs participating in the preliminary round. These clubs will be distributed into four groups, one group of four clubs, and three groups of three clubs, and the first-place team in each of the four groups will qualify for the group stage.
These four clubs join eight clubs that qualified directly to the group stage, which includes three groups of four clubs competing in a group system and through a single-stage split league during the period from October 6 to 12, and the groups are hosted by China, Thailand and Vietnam.
At the end of the group stage, the top two teams in each of the three groups will qualify for the quarter-finals, along with the two best third-placed teams. The quarter-finals will be held on March 22 and 23, 2025. The draw for the knockout rounds will be held before the start of the quarter-finals, which will be played in one round on the home ground of the highest-ranked team.
The final round matches will be held in a group system, with the semi-final and final matches being held in one round, during the period from 21 to 24 May 2025.
Sarah Hassanein, coach of the Abu Dhabi Sports Club women’s team, confirmed that the first Asian participation is a great gain for Emirati women’s football in general and for the Abu Dhabi Sports Club team, which enjoys great support from officials, which opens the door in the future for the participation of other women’s teams.
She said: “There is no doubt that the presence of the Abu Dhabi Sports Club women’s team in the first ‘iron’ group is an opportunity to interact and gain experience against advanced levels.”