AFC president praises Asian football family for spearheading road to recovery

Asian Football Confederation President Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa reiterated his praise for the Member Associations and Regional Associations for their commitment in charting the organization’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic at the 32nd AFC Congress held virtually on Wednesday.

The AFC president from Bahrain said: “As we take a moment to reflect, it is clear that the AFC, our Members and our Regional Associations are well on the road to recovery.

“Despite the omicron variant, we ushered 2022 with confidence and we owe a great deal of gratitude to all our host Member Associations, our participating teams and clubs for showcasing great unity during our most challenging hour,” he added.

“Credit must also go to all our Members and Regional Associations for safely managing the return of football events and their competitions.”

Since the last congress, the AFC has safely and successfully delivered the expanded AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022, the AFC Asian Qualifiers — Road to Qatar, the AFC Champions League 2021 Final and 2022 Group Stage, while the AFC Cup 2022 and the AFC Futsal Asian Cup Kuwait 2022 Qualifiers are currently ongoing.

Off the pitch, Sheikh Salman also emphasized the remarkable progress of the Technical, Referees and Development programs, most notably the initiatives under the AFC Academic Centre of Excellence, as well as the imminent introduction of the Extra-Time and Advantage Programs, announced at the recently concluded 10th AFC Executive Committee meeting.

At the same time, significant inroads have been made to elevate the commercial and sporting propositions of the existing competitions through the establishment of the AFC Elite Club Competition Task Force, while the launch of the