April 28 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Technical Committee has proposed a series of several enhancements to its coaching activities and certification following the AFC Coaching Convention, which completed today.
Among the game-changing enhancements include the addition of the goalkeeping and ‘C’ coaching Diploma requirements as part of the AFC Coaching Convention Regulations and further improvements to the competency and assessment criteria for the AFC Pro, ‘A’ and ‘B’ Diplomas.
“The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect the world and at our last meeting, I mentioned that Asian football will overcome this setback together,” said Kohzo Tashima (pictured), chair of the Technical Committee.
“I am happy to note that the AFC competitions have started with the AFC Champions League Group Stage now taking place in the West Zone and at the same time, I am proud that the AFC’s Technical activities have continued to strengthen our Member Associations despite the great challenges.”
The committee also took steps to evaluate the impact of heading among youth players together with the AFC Medical Committee, with a view of developing a ‘heading specific’ guideline for youth football.
Also highlighted was discussion over a need to protect grassroots pitches across the region in light of the effects of the pandemic, and the potential launch of a campaign to this end.
The Committee also agreed to explore the extent of which ‘relative age effect’ (RAE) exists among Asia’s national age-group teams. Following recent international studies, it was noted that RAE had an impact on elite youth football, with 50% of players selected for the national team born in the first quarter of the year, and only 6% in the final quarter.
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