AFC Congress 2014 - Latest News

The amendments aim to modernise the AFC Statutes, bringing them in line with the FIFA Statutes, and continuing the process of reforming and re-energising Asian football.

The amended Statutes, which came into force on July 10, are now available on the AFC website and can be found by clicking the following link...

http://www.the-afc.com/en/component/jdownloads/finish/43/320.html

"The AFC sent a strong message of unity in the football family, which is a good signal and we have seen it take effect for the future of football in Asia," Driyono said after Congress approved the proposal that the AFC President will automatically assume the role of FIFA Vice President.

"The statutes amendment that the FIFA Vice President will be the AFC President is a perfect proposal because our AFC President is the head of Asia," concurred Football Federation of Sri Lanka President Ranjit Rodrigo, who also approved of the decision to divide the 'South & Central' zone into two distinct entities suggesting that it will better help the development of the game in these regions.

The congress was, in the words of AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, "conducted positively, with great dignity and mutual respect", which was a point that Hong Kong Football Association CEO Mark Sutcliffe noted in his assessment of Monday's meeting.

"The Congress was short and sweet, very positive," he said.

"The word kept being used was unity. It was apparent there was a lot of common ground to improve football in Asia."

The proposal, which was submitted by the football federation of Iran, will see the Islamic Republic and Tajikistan grouped with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in a Central Zone which shall be recognised in the AFC Statutes

The AFC will host an Extraordinary Congress in the period prior to the elective Congress in 2015 to determine the number of seats assigned to each zone on the Executive Committee.

"We are happy that it finally happened and we will put our effort in to the creation of the zone and we can begin the administration process with the six federations on how to organise it," Mahmadshoev said.

"We also need to discuss the matters of duration, location of the headquarters and we look for support from the AFC in this matter."

Shaikh Salman addressed delegates at the AFC Extraordinary Congress on Monday morning in Sao Paulo, heralding the positive changes that have been implemented since the Bahraini was elected to the top post in the continental game in May 2013.
"A little over a year ago, I stood before you at the AFC Congress in Kuala Lumpur having been elected as the 10th President of the Asian Football Confederation," said Shaikh Salman
"It was a challenging time for the confederation, but together we have worked hard towards restoring our reputation. In a spirit of unity, cooperation, respect and constructive discussion, we can continue to take on the tasks we face and look forward to a bright future.
"This future shall be one of success on and off the pitch. And this success shall be achieved in a climate of transparency, integrity and good governance.
"In the short period of time since you placed your confidence and trust in me to lead the confederation, we have already seen a number of positive changes."
Shaikh Salman also announced several new initiatives to help further develop the game in Asia as the confederation seeks to pass on its expertise to Member Associations in a bid to further improve the sport.
"These three new projects have all been designed to support our Member Associations as we continue to work to strengthen our game locally and regionally," said the AFC President.
"These are assistance for building mini-pitches, provide financial assistance to encourage the hosting of AFC national team and futsal qualifiers and to share the AFC's knowledge base with the setup of a pool of experts to help you overcome challenges in administration, management of league marketing etc.
"I am confident that these new initiatives along with other programmes will greatly help Asian Football."
Shaikh Salman called for a continuance of the unity that has been shown within the confederation over the last year as the AFC moves towards further reform and modernisation ahead of next year's AFC Congress.
"We will not rest," said the AFC President. "United, we will continue the process of reform and innovation as we come together here in Brazil to modernise and amend our AFC statutes in compliance with FIFA's as well as to select the members of the Electoral and Election Appeal Committees for next year's election.
"We take these tasks responsibly and in the spirit of transparency and democracy as we continue to take Asian football forward."

Blatter's current term at the helm of the game's governing body will end in May next year but the Swiss, who has been in charge of the global game since his successful election in Paris in 1998, will seek a fifth term as FIFA President.

"You will know that my mandate will finish in 2015. My mission is not finished, but my mandate is," said Blatter. "Still, it burns inside me like a fire.

"It's 39 years that I am a development officer in FIFA and we have again a situation where we need leadership. I will just ask you, at the end of the Congress if you will join or not, if I will be your president in the future.

"This I will ask you, not now. You can say yes or no, but I would like to ask it at Congress."

Those comments prompted a standing ovation from AFC delegates, which was greeted by President Blatter, who said: "I shall take that as a yes."

President Blatter also commended Asian Football Confederation President Shaikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa on his first year in charge of the body, heralding the stability he has brought to the AFC since his election in May last year.

"I want to commend this Congress on the decision taken one year ago," said Blatter. "There was some disturbance of the waters around the AFC organisation and you, the Congress, decided to change the leadership and decided to go forward.

"I'm very happy with the election of Shaikh Salman Al Khalifa. You now have a new leader, you have a leader that not only wants to be a leader, you have a president with ideas that will be applied as initiatives.

"I would like to compliment the executive committee and your confederation for the great job they are doing."

Blatter also signalled FIFA's intention to award further payments to Member Associations and to all confederations as a result of the anticipated commercial success of the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil.

"I'm happy to announce our finances at FIFA are still comfortable and I'm happy to announce that, at Congress, after the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, we were able to give all national associations a bonus and we will be able to do that again after this World Cup," he said.

"There will be two bonuses, because we don't forget about the confederation, which will get a bonus and I'm sure you will be very happy with that."

Under the chairmanship of AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, the AFC Exco met on Sunday and reconfirmed its decision to review the formats of the World Cup qualifiers and the qualifiers for Asia's flagship competition the AFC Asian Cup.
As announced following an AFC Competition's Committee meeting in January, the wide-ranging proposals aimed at ensuring more MAs have the opportunity to participate at the highest level involves merging the preliminary round of qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup and the AFC Asian Cup.
Depending on the number of entries, the Member Associations will be divided into eight groups after the preliminary stages. The eight group winners and four second best teams will qualify for the FIFA World Cup final round of qualifiers and also the AFC Asian Cup finals. Presently, only ten teams battle it out in the final round of FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

The next best 24 teams from the preliminary qualification round (the remaining four second, third and fourth-placed teams, from the eight groups and four best fifth-placed teams will compete for the remaining slots in the AFC Asian Cup finals in six groups of four teams each.
These proposals will be further examined by the AFC Competitions Committee.
In addition to the decision to review the format changes for the FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, the AFC Executive Committee also approved amendments of the 2015/16 budget, with the amendments to the Confederation's financial plan relating to changes in competition format, the introduction of new development programmes and future needs of the AFC administration.
The AFC's journey of reform and renewal continues on Monday with the AFC Extraordinary Congress.