September 20 – The second AFC Women’s Football Development Seminar finished today at the AFC’s Kuala Lumpur headquarters. The three days saw 74 women’s football experts from 39 AFC member associations take part in a series of discussions and presentations.
Opening the conference sessions, AFC General Secretary Dato’ Windsor John, said: “Looking at all of you gathered here, one thing is clear: women’s football, to a large extent, is now led by women. This is a clear indication that the landscape is shifting and reinforces the remarkable progress of the women’s game in Asia.
However, he issued a call to actions saying: “We need to do more to ensure our grassroots movement matches our aspirations of raising the level of development systematically across the Continent. Our duty is to ensure we build a brighter future and a game that is more accessible for tomorrow’s generation of girls and women.”
The AFC has been a leader on the global women’s football stage with its most recent success being Japan’s August success in France in winning the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup title. Japan’s senior women also hold the AFC Cup title, having won it earlier this year in Indonesia at the Asian games.
Tribute was paid to Japan’s Asako Takakura and Futoshi Ikeda, head coaches of Japan’s senior and U-20 national teams.
The programme included a performance overview of the learnings from the FIFA World Cup in Russia by AFC Technical Director Andy Roxburgh, while Head of Women’s Development Bai Lili, who gave more detail on AFC Women’s Football Portfolio, which offers assistance programmes to member associations.
Separately the AFC’s Medical Committee agreed at a meeting in Kuala Lumpur to commission its first-ever injury study on women’s football which will focus on epidemiology and injury analysis based on data available from its women’s competitions.
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