Who will the girls be facing?

With the Bangladesh girls securing their place in the AFC Under-16 Women's Championship 2017, the interest is now down to who will the young girls be playing against in the final round, scheduled to be held in Thailand in September. And what exactly is the tournament all about? The tournament, from which the top three teams will qualify for the Fifa U-17 Women's World Cup, was first introduced 11 years ago in 2005. Hosted by South Korea, a total of 11 countries took part in what initially was a U-17 competition without qualifying stage. Japan emerged as the champions in the inaugural edition. The tournament switched to U-16 format in the second edition two years later and the number of participating teams was reduced to eight. The qualification round was introduced in 2009 and according to the current regulations, the top four teams from the competition automatically qualify for the final round. The remaining four teams earn their places through qualification. North Korea, Japan, China and Thailand finished as the champions, runners-up, third and fourth respectively in the last edition of the tournament, held in China last year. Consequently, the four sides achieved automatic qualification for next year's final round. This time around, a total of 22 nations, split into four groups, are fighting for the final round and only the group champions will join North Korea, Japan, China and Thailand. Only two teams have so far qualified for the final round with a game in hand; Australia from Group D and Bangladesh from Group C. Laos and South Korea are likely to qualify from Group A and B respectively. The Bangladesh girls may not face opponents of the same quality in the final round as they did in the qualifiers but they have a year to take the best preparation available. The good thing is that all of the players in the current squad will be eligible to play in the final round. “If we have to perform well there we have to start planning from now. Only training might not be enough, we have to play more practice matches against strong sides,” said Bangladesh U-16 women's head coach Golam Rabbani Choton on Sunday. “North Korea are currently one of the best teams in the world. Japan and Australia are also very strong. If we want to do something respectable in the final round, we have to play friendly matches against teams of their quality. Hopefully the authority will give priority regarding our preparation for the final round,” he added. There has been slight confusion as to which team will host the next edition of the AFC U-16 Women's Championship next year as many, having followed a Wikipedia source, reported it to be China. The Asian Football Confederation however, announced on Sunday that the tournament will be held in Bangkok, Thailand from September 2, 2017.