February 7: Criticism of FIFA’s proposed sponsorship deal for the 2023 Women’s World Cup with the Saudi Arabia tourist board has been loud, but domestically the Saudi’s look to be making all the right moves to provide more opportunity for women in football.
December 4 – The Chinese Football Association (CFA) has expanded its player development activity outside the country with the set up of a permanent training centre in Santo Domingo, Madrid, for its men’s and women’s teams.
July 26 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has boosted its management education for members as it launches its second and third editions of the Football Administration Certificate (FAC) programme for member associations.
July 10 – India may be taking the lead over its neighbours in terms of big tournament organisation with the FIFA U-17 World Cup this October, but the Asian Football Confederation is rolling out its development programmes throughout the region with the Bangladesh Football Federation’s AFC Grassoots Football Day being reported as a resounding success.
July 6 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) brought its top leagues together earlier this week for a forum that put financial stability at the top of the agenda. The meeting was organised as part of the AFC League Development Programme.
By Paul Nicholson
May 31 – The strength of football in Iran was out evident again at the weekend when the Iranian football federation (FFIRI) held its second Islamic Republic of Iran National Grassroots Conference in conjunction with the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) Grassroots Football Day with more than 600 grassroots coaches and managers from across the country present.
May 10 – Two of FIFA’s six confederations, the Asian Football Confederation and CONCACAF, have strengthened their collaboration by signing a fresh Memorandum of Understanding “to encourage knowledge, exchange and to enhance football development in the respective territories.”
April 21 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is to set up a Referee Academy based at AFC headquarters in Kula Lumpur, aimed at increasing the number of AFC referees at world class level within the region and improving standards across the region.
March 22 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) completed its third accelerated learning course for referees in Japan on Monday. Designed to identify and speed up the development of refereeing talent in the region, the two-year programme aims to graduate more officials to FIFA standards.
March 1 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has renewed its partnership with the German FA (DFB) for another four years. The Memorandum of Understanding between the two bodies was first signed in 2013.
By Samindra Kunti
January 26 – Six clubs will participate in the inaugural Indian Women’s League, the IWL. Kolkata and Bengaluru have no representation, but the tournament may help to improve the standard of women’s football in India.
November 29 – Qatar’s national coach has threatened to resign if a plan being considered by the country’s football authorities to exclude naturalised players from the squad is carried out.
November 29 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has picked sports data specialists Genius Sports to supply a new Competition Management system.
September 12 – Kyrgyzstan became the third Asian federation to launch its Live Streaming Platform during a recent friendly match against the Philippines. This follows the launch of the video platform in Bhutan and Oman.
September 9 – Educating the educators has become a key initiative of the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) drive to improve the levels of play across the region. This week the confederation hosted its third Coach Education Panel in Kuala Lumpur since its formation last year.
