May 14 – With the world’s football federation elite descending on Bangkok, Thailand, for the FIFA Congress on Friday (May 17), the day before Asian members will participate in the 34th Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Congress.
High on the agenda will be the election of two members to the AFC Executive Committee, both are standing for election unopposed.
South Korea’s Mong Gyu Chung, already a FIFA Council member and a vice president of the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) is standing for the East Zone’s position on the executive committee.
Tajikstan’s Mijgona Mahmadalieva is standing for AFC Female Executive Committee Member (Central Zone) position.
While the FIFA Congress will be more emotionally charged as FIFA deals with a vote for the 2027 Women’s World Cup hosts, calls for suspension of Israel over the country’s treatment of Palestine, and the demands from the World Leagues Association (WLA) and world players union Fifpro for the scrapping of the Club World Cup in 2025, the AFC Congress will be more of a celebration of Asian unity.
The confederation has delivered a full calendar of its competitions since its last congress, the first time since the pandemic. Already this year it has held record breaking editions of its Asian Cup and U23 Asian Cup, both hosted in Qatar.
The Congress will receive reports on the competitions as well as the progress of education, development, technical and refereeing programmes.
Following the Congress the AFC will unveil the branding for its new three-tier club competition system that will start with the 2024/25 season.
The revamped club competition format will see the top tier of Asian club football (the AFC’s top 24 participating clubs) compete in the AFC Champions League Elite (ACLE), while the 32-team second tier will be known as the AFC Champions League 2 (ACL2) and the final tier (20 clubs) will be called the AFC Challenge League (ACGL).
FIFA’s president Gianni Infantino who, after a very rocky start to his presidency, has now become more welcome among Asia’s members than within his former European constituency, is expected to address the congress.
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