The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has confirmed the three venues that will host games for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022™.
The tournament is scheduled to take place from January 20 to February 6, 2022.
The CommBank Matildas qualified for the tournament after reaching the Final of the previous edition of the AFC Women's Asian Cup in 2018.
They'll be looking to go one better in 2022, having lost to Japan in the 2018 decider in Jordan.
The 37,900-capacity D.Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai will remain as one of the three stadiums for 2022, alongside the Mumbai Football Arena – Andheri Sports Complex, Mumbai and the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi, Pune.
The decision was made to bring all of the games closer together, with Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune separated by under 150 kilometres, compared to the previous host cities of Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar and Navi Mumbai which were much more spread out across India.
"The decision was confirmed taking into careful consideration the existing challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and as part of efforts to minimise the travelling time for teams and officials between the venues, whilst ensuring the optimum environment to implement the Bio Medical Bubble for the benefit of all stakeholders," the AFC statement read.
The Qualifiers for the tournament are scheduled for September, with the draw date still TBC.
