Five AFC teams came to France after qualifying through the Women's Asian Cup in April last year with only three of those teams making it out of the group stages.

However, on Wednesday morning (AEST), the last of those, Japan and China, crashed out of the World Cup after Australia bowed out in the first Round of 16 clash.

It means for the first time there are seven European nations with reigning world champions, the United States, rounding out the eight, left to battle it out.

So is it a concern that there are no AFC teams left in the final eight?

Firstly, before getting into it all, there needs to be a brief rundown of the Women's World Cup format. The Round of 16 was only introduced at Canada 2015 before then it went from group stages straight to quarter-finals, because of the fewer teams participating.

But since 1991 there has always been at least one AFC team to make the quarter-final stage. Four years ago there were three; Australia, China and Japan with the latter going all the way to the final.

However, 2019 has been the World Cup for European teams after federations poured money into women's development. Italy is seeing the benefits of what a full-time league brings while the Netherlands are also reaping the rewards of having a starting side who play football for a living.

But Asia is falling behind.

There is a lack of investment, recognition and the length of seasons are minimal for most.

Australia, who are the highest ranked Asian team, still have what would be considered a semi-professional league and is far from being full-time.

While the W-League has received a boost in the last three years in relation to wage and off-field support, it is still just a 14 round season with each team playing at least 12 games.