Indian football club Gokulam Kerala FC has been placed into Group A of the AFC Women’s Club Championship 2023. The draw for the tournament took place at the Asian Football Confederation headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Thursday. The group stage of the invitational tournament will run from November 6 to 12 and will be co-hosted by Thailand and Uzbekistan. Gokulam will play their Group A matches in Thailand.
Gokulam Kerala’s group also includes five-time Chinese Taipei women’s league champions Hualien Women. The Nadeshiko League (Japan’s previous top-flight league tournament) champions, Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies, are also in the same group with Bangkok FC, who won their first Thai Women’s League title earlier this year.
The draw had eight teams divided into two groups of four. Group A will play all its matches in Thailand, with Bangkok FC serving as hosts. Group B will play all of its games in Uzbekistan, with FC Nasaf serving as hosts. A one-round league format will see the four teams in each group play against each other, following which the group winners clash in the grand finale to determine the best women’s club side in Asia.
Gokulam earned an entry to the tournament after winning the 2023 Indian Women’s League (IWL) in May, defeating Odisha FC 5-0 in the final game. The IWL is India’s top-tier women’s club football league. The AFC Women’s Club Championship is an invitational event, which began in 2019. It currently serves as the Asian continent’s premier women’s club competition but will be rebranded as the AFC Women’s Champions League starting next season.
Source: OLYMPICS
