June 9 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is readying for its Goa elective Congress on September 27 where it will vote for its representatives to FIFA’s new Council. Meanwhile member nations are battling out for the final places in the 2018 FIFA World Cup/2019 AFC Asian Cup joint-qualifiers.
The first step under AFC statutes is to select an electoral committee that the rules state should be comprised of the Chairperson of the AFC Disciplinary Committee, the Chairperson of the AFC Appeal Committee and the Chairperson of the AFC Audit Committee.
Chairman of the AFC Disciplinary Committee Mr Lim Kia Tong (Singapore) has declined his appointment and will be replaced by the Deputy Chairman of the Committee Dr Hamid Al-Shaibani from Yemen.
The chair of the electoral committee is Randall Cunliffe (Guam)and the other vice chair is Muhannad Fahmi Hamad. The Committee will run and supervise the elections. The FIFA Review Committee will conduct the eligibility check on candidates.
While the AFC prepares its representatives for FIFA office, its member associations have been fighting to win places in the final round of qualifiers for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.
South Asian champions India, 2007 AFC Asian Cup co-hosts Malaysia, Cambodia, Tajikistan and Yemen all recorded comfortable aggregate victories to take their place alongside 12 other nations that had advanced following the 2018 FIFA World Cup/2019 AFC Asian Cup joint-qualifiers.
Laos, Timor-Leste, Chinese Taipei, Bangladesh, the Maldives and Bhutan will compete for the final three slots in the second and final phase of the play-offs, which start in September and conclude in October. 24 teams will then have qualified for the 2019 AFC Cup qualifiers, of whom 12 will eventually go through to the final competition.
Play-off Round 2 fixtures
Maldives v Laos
Bangladesh v Bhutan
Timor-Leste v Chinese Taipei
The first legs will be played on September 6, with the second on October 11
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