The Grassroots Charter is a development tool for Member Associations (MA) to raise the quality of their grassroots programmes. It identifies 20 performance categories such as grassroots competitions, structure, long-term planning and partnerships, with PFF excelling in all criteria.

The importance of grassroots development is deeply rooted in the PFF across its 40 regional member associations where the focus on promoting and developing can be found in all levels of its football structure.

PFF and its regional FAs have various Grassroots competitions in place for the different age categories as well as women's football development to promote the game across the country.

The Grassroots Charter is a development tool for Member Associations to raise the quality of their grassroots programmes.

It identifies 20 performance categories, such as grassroots competitions, fairplay, partnerships and personal development, which have all been met by KFA.

Turambekar emerged from humble beginnings in a small village in Kolhapur, India but her rapid rise in the sport has truly been commendable. Determined to chase her dreams, the diminutive Turambekar reflects on the challenges she faced as a child and how it has inspired her to promote the sport at the grassroots level.

“My parents are farmers and I had no sports background. I used to help my parents on the farm but at the same time, I developed an interest in sports. In high school, I noticed that girls were playing football and that’s when I started to enjoy playing the sport.

“I come from a conventional family and it was very stressful to work on a farm and do house chores while focusing on my studies. So, football helped me forget everything,” said the physical education graduate.

Chinese Taipei Football Association

CTFA’s grassroots efforts are carried out based on their CTFA Grassroots Plan, which includes a wide range of programmes and activities that focus on professional football, international activities, domestic contests, talent cultivation, promotion of local football and the building of football fields.

The Summer Scheme is organised by the HKFA and is funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) Charities Trust with additional subvention given from LCSD for all pitch bookings. The programme provides football opportunities for children from the ages of four to 17 through a series of training sessions and friendly match-play. 

Each player can enjoy 10 sessions over a five-week period with classes being held across the whole of Hong Kong. After the conclusion of the training period, youngsters have the chance to play small-sided matches against their peers in ‘Games Days’.

The programme, which features at its core a Mini Pitch Scheme, a Competition Fund and the newly-established AFC Expert Pool, have been created to further encourage and support Member Associations to develop more infrastructure and host qualifying tournaments for AFC competitions.

"It's with great pleasure that I introduced these three new projects designed to support our Member Associations in strengthening football in their countries," said the AFC President, who announced the proposals to the delegates at the recently held AFC Extraordinary Congress in Sao Paulo.

"While our Member Associations continue to achieve great things on and off the pitch, I am very much aware that the AFC needs to invest resources to raise the standard further.

"With the new projects, I believe we are taking the first steps towards overcoming some of the challenges faced by our Member Associations in the key areas of infrastructure, financial assistance for national team football and expertise in specific areas of football administration."

The new initiatives will see the AFC assist further in delivering football infrastructure while also providing funds to financially constrained federations that have not hosted AFC qualifying tournaments within the previous four years.

In addition, the AFC will also provide expert human resource support to Member Associations in an effort to develop new projects or for associations facing significant challenges.

Called the AFC Expert Pool, federations will be able to seek assistance from a consultant in administration of their association or their league, football technical development, marketing and match day operations.
"These are all areas which can assist the Member Associations of AFC in their overall football development," added AFC General Secretary Dato' Alex Soosay.

"The introduction of the Mini Pitch scheme, for example, will increase the number of facilities available for grassroots and community football while the establishment of the Competition Fund will provide a contribution towards hosting qualifying tournaments.

"With this initial investment by the AFC, it is anticipated that more football stakeholders will understand the range of benefits and would subsequently provide additional investment in this scheme."

Its President Prof. Dr. Ir. Djohar Ariffin Husin has told the-afc.com that the PSSI has asked for assistance from the AFC to provide expertise such as in coaching and refereeing.

He said: “We have about 500 clubs and more than 500 youth academies in the 33 Indonesian provinces. Each football club has between five and 10 youth academies.

“These clubs and youth academies need more technical expertise with which we have requested AFC to help us. We want to start our grassroots and youth programme hopefully in January 2012.

“We would like AFC to help us in matters such as coaching, refereeing, referee assessing and instructing, because we want to encourage a quest for quality among all our many clubs and academies,” he said.

Prof. Husin and his delegation visited AFC House in Kuala Lumpur on Monday and met with AFC General Secretary Dato’ Alex Soosay.

In September and October this year, Indonesia received an inspection visit from the AFC Professional Football Development task force to help them qualify for the next edition of the AFC Champions League.

The task force has noted several strengths in Indonesian football and made recommendations for the improvement of their clubs and stadium facilities so that they can take part in the continental club showcase.

The task force's head, Tokuaki Suzuki, has among other things hailed Indonesian's strong passion for the game which will greatly help them in the efforts to constantly improve their football.