S. Korea to face N. Korea, China, Philippines in Olympic women's football qualifiers

SEOUL, Nov. 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will play North Korea, China and the Philippines in the 2028 Olympic women's football qualifying tournament next spring.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) held the draw for the continent's final Olympic qualifiers at its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. South Korea ended up in Group B with those three nations.

At the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, 16 teams will be in action in women's football, up from 12 at the 2024 Paris Games.

In the final AFC qualifiers, eight teams have been split into two groups, with Group A featuring Japan, Australia, Chinese Taipei and Uzbekistan.

The teams will play each other twice within their group. There will be two matches played each in April and October next year, and one match apiece in November and December 2027.

The top two teams from each group will automatically qualify for the Olympics. The two runners-up will face each other in a two-legged playoff in February and March 2028, with the winner moving on to the intercontinental playoff against Argentina.

Women's football made its Olympic debut in 1996 and South Korea have never played at the quadrennial competition.

The Taegeuk Ladies have long struggled against both North Korea and China -- one win, five draws and 16 losses against the former, and five wins, 10 draws and 29 losses against the latter.

Most recently, at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games this fall, South Korea had a 1-1 draw against North Korea in the group stage and defeated China 1-0 in the bronze medal match.