Having not played a competitive international game in the country for nearly a decade, the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL), with the assistance of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), has been busy making up for lost time through the AFC President’s Development Initiative.

The White Falcons’ transformation was one of the most compelling fairy tales at the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 as the debutants became the first side to progress into the knockout stage of the Continental showpiece since Australia in 2007.

And behind the scenes reveal a carefully and meticulously constructed blueprint spearheaded by the Football Federation of Kyrgyz Republic (FFKR) and the Football League of Kyrgyz Republic (FLK) – who have been relentless in their pursuit to professionalise the game at all levels.

Capitalising on the nascent roots for the sport, the FFKR and FLK have been working with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to establish a dedicated football broadcast channel to grow the passion for the game in the country.

As beneficiaries of the AFC Solidarity Fund, Tyson Scott (AUS), Rishab Kapur (IND), Han Bits-yi (KOR), Mahmoud Qaraqra (PLE) and Michael Kevin Goco (PHI), who were all endorsed by their respective Member Associations, will spend the next three months at De Montfort University in Leicester, England, for the Humanities of Sport module at the university’s renowned International Centre for Sports History and Culture.

In January, the class will then move to Italy to study Sports Management at Milan’s SDA Bocconi School of Management. Following the completion of this module, the class will finally transfer to Switzerland where they will be taught Sports Law at the University of Neuchâtel for the final module of the year.

The scholarships are part of the AFC’s commitment to enhance the capability of staff from the AFC’s Member Associations and were announced by the AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa at the 28th AFC Congress in Kuala Lumpur last October.

Chaired by Salem Said Salem Al Wahaibi, the Committee heard of AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa’s President’s Development Initiative, the President’s Infrastructure Initiative as well as the Technical Staff Initiative and Football Administration Certificate (FAC).

The Committee learnt that 15 Member Associations (MAs) had benefited from the Development Initiative, 23 Mini Pitches were delivered to eight MAs in 2018 while FAC Editions Four and Five saw 42 graduates from 19 MAs and Editions Six and Seven 47 participants from 23 MAs – with Turkmenistan and Syria represented for the first time.

A total of 12 infrastructure projects were approved in 2018 and a further 24 this year under the President’s Infrastructure Initiative while 30 MAs applied for funding under the President’s Technical Staff Initiative of which 22 have been accepted so far.

The AFC Financial Assistance Programme (AFAP) has risen to USD500,000 in 2019 – an increase of 100% from 2018 – and will be distributed in two instalments to eligible MAs, who can then utilise these funds to achieve their goals and objectives.

A minimum of 10% from the AFAP must be distributed to drive Women’s Football/Women’s Futsal, Coach Education and Youth and Grassroots programmes, which further underlines the AFC’s Vision and Mission of promoting the sport at all levels.

Beginning 2020, all eligible MAs must employ full-time specialists in key areas such as Coach Education, Elite Youth Programmes, Women’s Football, Grassroots, Marketing, Refereeing, Legal Affairs, Media and Communications, Finance, International Relations, and Club Licensing in order to access their annual AFAP.

Recognising the need to build more football infrastructure, the highly-acclaimed Mini-Pitch scheme under the AFC President’s Infrastructure Initiative has been discontinued and MAs can now utilise the increase in contribution of USD 800,000 over the period of 2019-2020 for any infrastructure investment including mini-pitches.

As part of the AFC’s commitment to help its MAs, this new initiative was launched as a platform for MAs to further improve their governance and management in football.

The introduction of the Advance 11 is aimed at helping the MAs measure and benchmark their capabilities against a set of guidelines incorporating 11 key functions which covers legal and governance, finance and risk, administration, logistic and IT, human resource, facilities management and maintenance.

The guidelines also focus on marketing and branding, commercial and business development, stakeholder relations, leadership and management of national teams and competitions and club management.

The system and methodology of the Advance 11 are designed to improve the MAs objectives and efficiencies while ultimately helping MAs to self-evaluate and identify areas which require attention and focus.

As part of the AFC’s commitment to strengthen the capabilities of its Member Associations, the state-of-the-art CMS allows Member Associations to control and manage all aspects of their competitions across every stage of a season.

Launched in collaboration with Genius Sports, a global leader in sports technology and developers of the FIFA Connect platform, the CMS has been modernising the way Member Associations manage competitions, saving valuable time and resources and empowering them to take greater control in data generation.