# 2024 WAFF Women's Championship

The 2024 WAFF Women's Championship was the 8th edition of the WAFF Women's Championship, the biennial international women's football tournament in West Asia competed by the national teams in the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF). The tournament was hosted by the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it was the first major women's football tournament to be hosted in the kingdom.
Jordan were three-time defending champions having won the last three editions (Jordan 2014, Bahrain 2019 and Jordan 2022). and they successfully retained the title for the sixth time, after beating Nepal on penalties in the final. In the other hand tournament's host Saudi Arabia were unable to secure victory in any of their matches. Nepalese striker Sabitra Bhandari won the top scorer award scoring nine goals throughout the tournament. Jordanian player Maysa Jbarah was voted the tournament's best player, whilst Jbarah teammate Sherin Al-Shalabe was awarded the best goalkeeper award.

## Teams
### Participating teams

On 4 February 2024, the WAFF announced that 8 countries would participate in the 2024 edition – the highest number of participating countries in a single edition since United Arab Emirates 2011 – with Saudi Arabia participating for the first time in a major football tournament. This was also the first edition where non-West Asian Football Federation members were also invited, namely Guam, an EAFF member and Nepal, a SAFF member.
Although numerous Egyptian media outlets indicated that an invitation had been sent to the Egypt women's national football team for the 2024 edition, the team was not included in the list of participants published on 4 February 2024
| Country | Appearance | Previous best performance | FIFA ranking December 2023 |
| Guam | 1st | Debut | 93 |
| Iraq | 2nd | Group stage (2011) | NR |
| Jordan | 8th | Champions (2005, 2007, 2014, 2019, 2022) | 74 |
| Lebanon | 5th | Runners-up (2022) | 134 |
| Nepal | 1st | Debut | 105 |
| Palestine | 7th | Runners-up (2014) | 136 |
| Saudi Arabia | 1st | Debut | 175 |
| Syria | 5th | Third place (2005, 2022) | 160 |

#### Did not enter

* Bahrain
* Kuwait
* Oman
* Qatar
* United Arab Emirates
* Yemen

### Draw

The final draw took place at the West Asian Football Federation Headquarters in Amman, Jordan, on 5 February 2024 at 11:00 AST (UTC+3).
For the draw, The eight participating teams were drawn into a singular pot. Saudi Arabia, the host nation was identified by a different color and was automatically allocated to Group A, Position A1. A second pot with 8 balls representing positions A1, A2, A3, A4, B1, B2, B3, and B4 was used for the draw. The A1 position was marked with a different color. each time a team was drawn from the first pot was simultaneously assigned its specific position from the second pot.

### Squads

Each team had to register a squad of 23 players, minimum three of whom must be goalkeepers.

## Match officials
### Referees

* Mohamed Juma
* Ahmed Saad
* Ahmed Gatea
* Esraa Al-Mbaiden
* Haneen Murad
* Doumouh Al Bakkar
* Muath Owfi
* Alesar Baddour
* Khuloud Al-Zaabi

### Assistant referees

* Nawaf Moosa
* Salman Mohamed Talasi
* Karrar Abbas Half
* Islam Al-Abadi
* Sabreen Al-Abadi
* Mohamad El Hajje
* Alaa Amro
* Roba Zarka
* Amal Badhafari

## Venues

On 4 February 2024, WAFF announced Jeddah as the designated host city, with two chosen venues: the annex stadium of King Abdullah Sports City for the group stage and Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Sports City for the knockout stage.
| Jeddah | Jeddah | Jeddah |
| Jeddah | King Abdullah Sports City Reserve Stadium | Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Sports City |
| Jeddah | Capacity: 10,000 | Capacity: 27,000 |

## Group stage
### Tiebreakers

Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:
* Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
* Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
* Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
* If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
* Goal difference in all group matches;
* Goals scored in all group matches;
* Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
* Drawing of lots.

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Jordan | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 | +7 | 9 | Advance to knockout phase |
| 2 | Lebanon | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 6 | Advance to knockout phase |
| 3 | Guam | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 7 | −2 | 3 | |
| 4 | Saudi Arabia (H) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 8 | −5 | 0 | |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Nepal | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 1 | +12 | 9 | Advance to knockout phase |
| 2 | Palestine | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 6 | Advance to knockout phase |
| 3 | Syria | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 3 | |
| 4 | Iraq | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 11 | −11 | 0 | |

## Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, penalty shoot-out would be used to decide the winner if necessary (no extra time was played).

### Bracket

| Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final |
| 27 February – Jeddah | 27 February – Jeddah |
| Jordan | 5 |
| Jordan | 5 | 29 February – Jeddah | 29 February – Jeddah |
| Palestine | 0 | 29 February – Jeddah | 29 February – Jeddah |
| Palestine | 0 | Jordan | 2 (5) |
| 27 February – Jeddah | 27 February – Jeddah | | Jordan | 2 (5) |
| 27 February – Jeddah | 27 February – Jeddah | Nepal | 2 (3) |
| Nepal | 2 | Nepal | 2 (3) |
| Lebanon | 1 | | |

### Final

| Jordan | Nepal |
| GK | 1 | Sherin Al-Shalabe |
| DF | 19 | Ayah Al-Majali |
| DF | 21 | Rand Abu-Hussein |
| DF | 3 | Alanoud Al-Zabrey |
| DF | 7 | Nour Zoqash |
| DF | 20 | Lana Feras |
| MF | 8 | Enas Al-Jamaeen | | 33' |
| FW | 10 | Sarah Abu-Sabbah | 43' |
| MF | 17 | Rouzbahan Fraij |
| FW | 13 | Leen Al-Btoush | | 58' |
| FW | 11 | Maysa Jbarah (c) |
| Substitutions: ||
| FW | 9 | Bana Al-Bitar | | 33' |
| MF | 16 | Zaina Hazem | | 58' |
| Manager: ||
| Maher Abu Hantash ||
| GK | 16 | Anjila Tumbapo Subba (c) |
| DF | 2 | Puja Rana | 90+6' |
| DF | 5 | Amrita Jaisi | 73' |
| DF | 6 | Hira Kumari Bhujel |
| FW | 10 | Rashmi Ghising | | 45+2' |
| DF | 12 | Gita Rana |
| FW | 13 | Rekha Poudel | 79' |
| MF | 14 | Preeti Rai | | 74' |
| FW | 18 | Sabita Rana Magar |
| MF | 19 | Amisha Karki | | 90' |
| MF | 23 | Dipa Shahi |
| Substitutions: ||
| MF | 11 | Anita Basnet | | 45+2' |
| DF | 15 | Amrita Jaisi | | 74' |
| MF | 17 | Bimala Chaudhary | | 90' |
| Manager: ||
| Rajendra Tamang ||
Assistant referees: Nawaf Moosa (Bahrain) Salman Mohamed Talasi (Bahrain) Fourth official: Khuloud Al-Zaabi (United Arab Emirates)

## Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
Top scorer :
* Sabitra Bhandari ||
* 9 goals
* Best Player ||
* Maysa Jbarah ||
* Best goalkeeper ||
* Sherin Al-Shalabe ||

## Statistics
### Goal scorers

There were 56 goals scored in 15 matches, for an average of 3.73 goals per match.
9 goals
* Sabitra Bhandari
5 goals
* Maysa Jbarah
3 goals
* Mariah Anaya
* Lana Feras
* Lili Iskandar
2 goals
* Rebecca Bartosh
* Christy Maalouf
* Rekha Poudel
* Gita Rana
* Nour Youssef
* Nor Mustafa
1 goal
* Mai Sweilem
* Ayah Al-Majali
* Zaina Hazem
* Sarah Abu Sabbah
* Enas Al-Jamaeen
* Sarah Abu-Sabbah
* Syntia Salha
* Amisha Karki
* Anita Basnet
* Preeti Rai
* Sabita Rana Magar
* Aya Abed
* Miral Qassis
* Leen Mohammed
* Lana Abdulrazak
* Seba Tawfiq
* Maria Elias
* Razan Khwandi
1 own goal
* Aida-Rose Pedemonte (against Jordan)
* Puja Rana (against Lebanon)
* Nouf Saud (against Lebanon)
Source: GSA

### Tournament rankings

| Pos. | Team | G | Pld | W | D | L | Pts | GF | GA | GD |
| 1 | Jordan | A | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 15 | 3 | +12 |
| 2 | Nepal | B | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 17 | 4 | +13 |
| Eliminated in the semi-finals |||||||||||
| 3 | Lebanon | A | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 9 | −1 |
| 4 | Palestine | B | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 9 | −5 |
| Eliminated in the group stage |||||||||||
| 5 | Syria | B | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | −1 |
| 6 | Guam | A | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | −2 |
| 7 | Saudi Arabia | A | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 8 | −5 |
| 8 | Iraq | B | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 11 | −11 |