Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: Developing the potential of women’s football in Asia, how to tackle the challenges and attracting partners’ support to the women’s game are some of the issues discussed by the working groups at the FIFA/AFC Conference on Women’s World Cup 2011 in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
The 80 participants in the three-day conference were broken into three working groups to discuss the issues and present their solutions and suggestions on Thursday, the last day of the conference.
To develop the potential of women’s football in Asia, the working groups tackled the following questions:
-- What needs to be done to fully explore the potential of women’s football in Asia?
-- How can the MAs contribute?
-- What are the next steps?
The groups also delved into the following questions in regards to opportunities for Asian women’s football:
-- What and where are the opportunities in women’s football?
-- How to use the unique power of football to further develop women’s football in Asia?
-- How to raise awareness and attract partners to support the women’s game?
The groups also discussed the solutions to introduce grassroots and school programmes across the continent and priorities to introduce and establish national competitions at the youth and senior levels.
Opportunities for player development and talent identification programmes in Asia and at the MAs as well as how MAs should deal with retention of former players in football development were also brainstormed.
They also explored opportunities for coaching education and increasing the number, quality and status of female coaches.
Betty Wong Yeuk King (Hong Kong), Kanya Keomany (Laos) and Cheri Jo Stewart (Guam) were the leaders of the working groups.