The match schedule for the Women´s WFC 2017 Asia Oceania Qualification has been released. In the AOFC there are nine teams participating – a new record for either men or women in AOFC. The event will be held in Wellington, New Zealand, from 31st January – 5th February 2017.
Photo: Mel Lyons
In AOFC, the teams are divided into two groups and the teams will play once against each of the other teams in their group. Based on the results from these group matches the teams will progress to the play-off rounds, as follows and four teams will qualify to WFC 2017:
– 1st in Group A & Group B progress to the final and qualify directly to the WFC Final round
– 2nd in each group play a quarter final against the 3rd placed team from the other group. The winners of this progress to the 3rd placed match and qualify directly to the WFC Final round
– The losers of the quarter-finals will play for 5th place
– The teams who finish 4th & 5th in their group will play off for 7th-9th place, according to the following:
4th in Group A will play once against 4th & 5th in Group B. These two matches plus the result of the group match between the 4th & 5th placed teams in Group B will be used to calculate the 5th-7th placements
For the match schedule & more information on the qualification event, visit the IFF WFCQ AOFC event page
Qualification Groups
The qualification groups are as follows:
| EUR1 | EUR4 | AMERICAS | |||
 |
Sweden (1)* |  |
Czech Republic (4) |  |
Canada (16) |
 |
Norway (8) |  |
Latvia (5) |  |
USA (17) |
 |
Denmark (10) |  |
Hungary (15) | ||
 |
Slovenia (24) |  |
Spain (19) | ||
 |
France (25) |  |
Ukraine (-) | ||
| EUR2 Italy | EUR3 | AOFC | |||
 |
Finland (2) |  |
Switzerland (3) |  |
Australia (12) |
 |
Poland (7) |  |
Germany (6) |  |
Japan (13) |
 |
Russia (11) |  |
Netherlands (14) |  |
Singapore (18) |
 |
Italy (22) |  |
Estonia (20) |  |
Korea (21) |
 |
Great Britain (26) |  |
Austria (27) |  |
New Zealand (23) |
 |
Malaysia (30) | ||||
 |
Thailand (-) | ||||
 |
Iran (-) | ||||
 |
China (-) |
*Numbers in brackets show the current ranking based on the results from the last two WFC events. Countries with no ranking are participating in their first WFC and will receive a ranking after the event.
A new record of 31 teams registered for WFC 2017. Four countries will make their debut at this level – Ukraine, Iran, Thailand & China. For Ukraine, Iran and China this will be the first-ever international appearance for their women´s team, while Thailand will be hoping to follow up from their strong international start at the 2015 SEA Games, where they finished second to Singapore. Slovenia, Austria & Korea are all returning after a break from competing at this level.
All teams, apart from the host country (Slovakia), will have to qualify for the Final Round via the qualifications. After being exempt from the qualifications in 2015 due to their hosting of the final event, this will be the first time that the Finnish women´s team have ever participated in a qualification round for WFC.
Other regional qualifications will be held in Europe (Italy & Spain) and the Americas (host to be confirmed). More information on the European events can be found from these links:
EUR1 & 4 – Madrid, Spain
EUR2 & 3 – Celano, Italy
The 11th Women´s WFC 2017 will be held in Bratislava, Slovakia from 1st-9th December 2017.
