What Tournament Organisers Can Learn From India’s AFC Women’s Cup Exit

The Indian women’s football team (Indian team) was forced to withdraw from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s Asian Cup 2022 (AFC Cup) due to twelve players testing positive for COVID-19 in the squad.1 On 23 January 2022, the Indian team was scheduled to play its second group game against Chinese Taipei. However, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in the squad, the Indian team were unable to name the minimum 13 players required to start the match and consequently the match was called off a few minutes after the scheduled kick-off. Following the cancellation of the match, AFC considered India to have withdrawn from the competition in accordance with the Special Rules (defined below) instituted to address pandemic induced match cancellations.

In this context, we will explore:

• AFC regulations that governed India’s withdrawal from the AFC Cup.

• Approaches adopted by different tournaments in case of COVID-19 interruptions:

  • Mandatory cancellation of matches/withdrawal from tournament.

  • Discretionary case-to-case basis assessment.

We will conclude with suggestions for tournament organisers to address while exploring the different approaches taken by football tournaments.