Women's Asian Cup 2026: The uneven roads that lead to the trophy, from the intriguing North Korea, to favourite Japan

The afterglow of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup co-hosted in Australia and New Zealand still burns bright, with memories of sold-out stadiums, record audiences and players turned into household names.

The Matildas re-shaped what women's football could look like here.

The Women's Asian Cup — starting this weekend — provides Australia and visiting nations the opportunity to do just that again.

Create history, bring attention to their country like never before, and seek respect and investment.

But while all teams will enter the tournament on an equal footing, they have each had vastly different journeys to qualification.

According to global player union FIFPro, less than two-thirds of women players in Asia identify as professional, with most earning less than $14,000 annually from the sport.

Behind the spectacle of a continental championship lies a patchwork of vastly different systems, resources, and adversities.

The Matildas' group: stark contrasts

In Australia's Group A alone, the disparities are sharp.

The Iranian women's national football team is faced with layers of constraints before even stepping on the pitch.

Canadian journalist Shireen Ahmed notes that Iranian players must have male and family chaperones to compete.

"It has been a problem in the past, where if they don't get permission from a husband or a father, they can't actually participate overseas anywhere," Ahmed said.

Iran's modern women's football program only began in 2005.

Early momentum was stalled by a FIFA ban on the hijab, lifted in 2014, which restricted participation in international matches.

Yet even with that barrier removed, more subtle complexities remain.

In 2023, goalkeeper Zahra Khajavi told German broadcaster ZDF that in hot, humid, or rainy conditions, wearing the hijab can pose a slight physical disadvantage. Under Islamic law, wearing of the hijab is mandatory in Iran.

However, she says facilities are one of the strengths for the team heading in.

"The National Training Centre is quite nice. It's where the men practice," she said.

In comparison, the Matildas' opening day opponents, the Philippines, appear to be on the cusp of a golden age of football.

In 2023, the team became one of only nine Asian nations to qualify for a Women's World Cup, a milestone that has put them on track for a meteoric rise in the sport.

They arrive buoyed by their first-ever Southeast Asian Games gold and an unbeaten qualifying campaign in which they conceded no goals.

They are coached by Australian Mark Torcaso, and the Philippine Football Federation will run four different training camps throughout February, with the aim of qualifying for another World Cup.

North and South Korea and likely trophy contenders

On paper, the South Korea women's team should be very well-placed. They are reigning runners-up, having famously knocked Australia out of the 2022 edition.

But last year, players signed a statement claiming they faced "harsh and unreasonable conditions", alleging that the Korea Football Association (KFA) viewed "equal treatment with the men's national team as unreasonable".

The statement detailed long bus journeys, economy flights, and instances where players paid personally for airport transfers and training kits.

It warned that without a response, a boycott of the Asian Cup was possible.

The Matildas went on a two-month strike in 2015 over pay and conditions, the first time an Australian national team had taken such an action. The similarities are difficult to ignore.

South Korean and Chelsea veteran Ji So Yun told Korean media that it felt like "players are not being treated in a manner befitting national team members".

An internal KFA document seen by AFP showed that the women's team was allocated less than 10 per cent of the total budget for the men's team.

South Korea has since named its squad, signalling a resolution of the matter, with the national federation and players' association reportedly in ongoing discussions.

On the other side of the Korean border, the reality of football looks curiously different.

According to Edinburgh-based sports lecturer Jung-Woo Lee, selection for the North Korea women's national football team can transform a family's economic standing.

"[Selected players receive] heavy compensation and a new apartment in the capital, Pyongyang," he said.

Players devote almost their entire time to training, and do not typically engage in other forms of employment or labour.

"There is a strong systematic approach to foster competitive international women's football," he said.

National team players dedicate themselves to scientifically planned training and nutrition programs, often through boarding-style football schools that train boys and girls from a young age.

Lee suggests that because the women's team has historically delivered more international success than the men's side and continues to have a greater potential to do so, it may even receive greater investment.

He argues the women's football team members are treated as national heroes when they win, and that sporting success is an important part of the totalitarian regime's image, both domestically and internationally.

Due to UN-imposed sanctions, Lee adds that North Korean players are unable to play for foreign clubs.

Despite this limitation, North Korea has been dominant in women's youth groups, claiming the most recent U20 and U17 Women's World Cups.

The senior women's team only narrowly missed out on a spot at the 2024 Paris Olympics, after a 2-1 loss to Japan.

Indeed, the North Koreans, alongside Japan and Australia, are considered favourites to lift the Women's Asian Cup.

South Asia and chasing the dream

For South Asian nations India and Bangladesh, even qualifying has been a history-making feat. It is the first time in modern history that both countries have qualified on merit.

While lifting the trophy would be a dream come true, both nations have spoken about how incredible it would be to secure World Cup qualification.

The top six nations in the tournament qualify for the World Cup, with two others securing a chance to qualify, something no South Asian nation has ever done.

India is hopeful of changing that, says former national team goalkeeper Aditi Chauhan.

The arrival of new head coach Amelia Valverde, who led Costa Rica to two World Cups, has sparked optimism.

"There are better circumstances in terms of the Indian Women's League running too," Chauhan said.

India hosted the 2022 Asian Cup but was unable to participate in the majority of the tournament due to a COVID-19 outbreak in camp.

Since then, India has launched a domestic league for football, and in 2025, for the first time, every Indian women's team — at all age levels — qualified for the Women's Asian Cup.

The Indian government also helps in providing some stability, Chauhan adds.

"Most of the players are employed by the government," she explained.

"Football isn't professional [in India], and a lot of these players come from under-served communities, so getting a government job is huge, getting a fixed salary is huge."

But juggling an office job while competing at the highest level poses its own challenges.

This year's draw has made it no easy task. India has been drawn into a very tough group with favourites Japan, and long-time competition participants Chinese Taipei and Vietnam.

Socio-economic and geopolitical constraints have also impacted the preparation of the South Asian teams.

In August 2025, the Indian team was forced to cancel friendly matches in Macedonia due to visa issues.

Similarly, Bangladesh, back-to-back winners of the South Asian Football Championship, reportedly had domestic matches disrupted in 2025 due to protests against women playing football.

Other contenders

Uzbekistan will be the sole representative of central Asia at this tournament, making its first appearance after a 23-year absence.

Meanwhile, Vietnam will make its seventh appearance in the Asian Cup, on the back of a debut Women's World Cup in 2023.

China, Japan, and Chinese Taipei have all won this competition multiple times.

China, the reigning champion, has won it a staggering nine times, while Chinese Taipei and Japan have won it three and two times, respectively.

However, unlike its East Asian counterparts, Chinese Taipei last won the tournament in 1981 and has failed to progress beyond the quarterfinals since 1999.

Heading into the tournament, Japan boasts a robust program and a strong coaching set-up, comprising Dane Nils Nielsen as head coach and Australian Leah Blayney as assistant.

Japan's WE League, which launched in 2021, is Asia's first fully professional league, and most of the current players have come through there.

The absence of a fully professional league in many parts of Asia has consistently held the continent back, especially as women's football grows exponentially in other parts of the world.

Almost half of the Japanese national team play in England's Women's Super League, widely regarded as one of the strongest leagues in the world.

The massive investment in English women's football after the Lionesses' Euros win has sparked hope around the world for increased investment in the women's game.

For many players across this continent, this tournament means more than winning and bringing glory to their nation.

It represents a rare, perhaps once-in-a-generation chance to rewrite the story of women's football in their home countries.

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