On July 5, 2021, the AFC announced through official channels that the Executive Committee had adopted the recommendation of the Women's Football Committee and decided to cancel the U17 Women's Asian Cup to be held in Indonesia in 2022, as well as the U20 Women's Asian Cup to be held in Uzbekistan in the same year. At the same time, the AFC also announced that the tournaments hosted by the countries of the two member associations will be postponed to 2024.
In the face of the dire situation of the international epidemic and the ensuing uncertainties, the Executive Committee of the AFC has frankly stated that ensuring the health and safety of those involved in the tournament has become the primary consideration in organizing various soccer events. In particular, the AFC attaches great importance to the physical safety of young players.
In order to prepare meticulously for the new Women's Asian Cup to be held in India in 2022, the Executive Committee has decided to give a lot of flexibility to the qualifying schedule of the tournament. The qualifiers were originally scheduled to be played from September 13 to 25, 2021 as per the tournament calendar. However, against the backdrop of the epidemic and the challenges faced by all relevant aspects of the tournament, especially the practical problems faced by the host countries in terms of anti-epidemic measures, in particular the quarantine of personnel, the AFC will intensify its communication with the Member Associations in order to finalize a reasonable schedule.
On the same day, the AFC Executive Committee also agreed to the recommendation of the Futsal and Beach Soccer Committee to cancel the 2020 Kuwait Women's Futsal Championship and the 2021 AFC U20 Futsal Asian Cup.
In addition, the qualifiers for the 2022 AFC Futsal Asian Cup (final stage to be hosted by Kuwait), which was originally scheduled to be held from October 13 to 24, 2021, has been postponed to April 1 to 15, 2022. The final phase of the tournament has also been rescheduled to September 25 to October 20, 2022, from the initial February 16 to 27 date.
