AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam (L) presenting a pennant to the Vice Mayor of Chengdu Fu Yong Lin(R), in presenting of Chengdu Mayor Ge Honglin (B)on Sunday.

CHENGDU: Chengdu Mayor Ge Honglin has expressed confidence that with the help of AFC this western Chinese city would be able to improve Chengdu football to a higher level.

During his meeting with AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam here on Sunday, Honglin said: “Chengdu is a big football market as we have great cooperation with foreign clubs.”

“Youth football has seen an improvement here in the recent past but still it hasn’t reached the desired level.”
“We would like to host more football activities as Chengdu has experienced an economic boost in recent years and with the direct support of AFC, we hope to organise more events.”

The AFC chief said: “We are focusing on grassroots and youth football development. With the help of football, we want the youth to concentrate on sports and learn discipline.”

“I am very much encouraged by Mayor Ge Honglin’s enthusiasm in developing football. As the governing body of Asian football, we would like to work together with the Chinese Football Association and Chengdu city government to realise our football dream in Chengdu.”

Replying to a request about organising a centralised competition for league champions of all the city leagues launched under the Vision China project, Bin Hammam said: “We first launched Vision China project in 2005, and hopefuly we could have 15 Chinese cities in Vision China project in next 4 years, It will be impossible to reach this target without government support .”