AFC Club Licensing Workshop held in Bahrain

Conducted under the AFC League Development Programme, the workshop aimed to assist the Bahrain Football Association (BFA) in developing a club licensing framework since it is mandatory for clubs to be licensed to participate in the AFC Cup from 2018.

The workshop was conducted in three phases and AFC Development Officer Essam Al Suhibani first presented on the overview of club licensing in Asia and the role club licensing plays in the overall development of football in Bahrain. The workshop was also held in conjunction with the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 Qualifiers Matchday One, where Bahrain tied with Singapore in a goalless draw.

In the second phase, ​AFC Club Licensing Consultant Ahmad Masha ​shared on the club licensing regulations for clubs ​wanting to participate ​in the AFC Champions League​ as well as AFC Cup. Masha also elaborated on the specific criteria clubs would have to adhere to and the decision making process of the BFA when issuing a license.

BF​A ​Club Licensing Manager ​Ali Almajed then gave a brief demonstration on the Club Licensing Administration System (CLAS) to the club managers. CLAS is an innovative online platform allowing clubs to comply with the AFC club licensing criteria and AFC Member Associations (MA) are benefited by the transparency and administrative control of the national club licensing process.

The ​final phase ​was an open discussion for the participants to address the issues and challenges they might face during the implementation process, with feedback given by the AFC and BF​A​ officials to each query raised.

The AFC and BFA will continue to assist the clubs in fulfilling the criteria according to their designated timelines.