Odisha FC set to debut in 2024-25 Season of AFC Women's Champions League

Women’s football is all set to gain new prominence in Asia as the inaugural edition of the AFC Women’s Champions League will kick off with the preliminary stage on Sunday.

Tournament Format

The tournament will witness 21 of the 47 member associations from Asia, having a representation in the competition. The tournament will be conducted in three stages — Preliminary stage, Group Stage, and Knockout stage.

The Preliminary Stage will begin on Sunday and is scheduled to take place between August 25 and August 31. The Group Stage and the Knockout Stage will held in October and from March to May, respectively.

The top eight clubs have directly qualified for the Group stage due to their superior AFC rankings whereas the remaining 13 clubs of the AFC member association, including Odisha FC from India will begin their campaign with the preliminary stage.

How did Odisha FC qualify for the Event?

21 Clubs from each AFC member association country, including Odisha FC qualified for this league by winning their respective domestic football leagues.

Odisha FC also secured their spot in the inaugural AFC Women's Champions League by winning their maiden league title at the 2023-24 edition of the Indian Women's League (IWL).

They defeated Kickstart FC from Karnataka in their final league match, finishing first in the season and thereby earning the qualification for the AFC Women's Champions League.

Preliminary Stage

The Preliminary Stage is divided into four groups—Groups A, B, C, and D. Each group consists of three teams, except for Group A, which has four teams. In a round-robin format, each team will play against every other team in their group.

The teams that finish at the top of their respective groups will qualify for the Group Stage. Odisha FC is placed in Group B alongside clubs such as Etihad FC from Jordan, who are also the hosts, and Lion City Sailors FC from Singapore.

Squad: Odisha FC

Forwards: Lynda Kom, Pyari Xaxa, Jennifer Kankam, Aishwarya Jagtap, Neha Sillay

Midfielders: Grace Hauhnar, Kajol D’Souza, Kiran Pisda

Defenders: Arifa Zaheer, Kretina Sangma, Ibrahim Maryam, Nimita Gurung, Kajal, Nishka Parkash, Sulekha Kanhar

Goalkeepers: Shreya Hooda, Anshika, Aisha Ghatualo

Group B Schedule

25th August - Odisha FC (Ind) Vs Lion City Sailors FC (Sin)

28th August - Lion City Sailors FC (Sin) Vs Etihad FC (Jor)

31st August - Odisha FC (Ind) Vs Etihad FC (Jor)

All matches will start at 9:30 PM IST.

Streaming Details

All the AFC Women’s Champions League group stage matches of the preliminary round will be live-streamed on the streaming platform, Fancode.