The widely-acclaimed webinar, which was organised to further support the AFC MAs in resuming their domestic seasons, invited K League’s Head of Football Operations/Head of Strategic Planning & Development Park Seong-kyun to share their experiences on league preparation and operations in the new normal.

In the first edition of Gamechangers – the-AFC.com's new weekly series highlighting great stories within the Asian women’s game – we meet Aidana Otorbaeva, the Kyrgyz Republic international who utilised her standing as a footballer to play a courageous role in the country’s fight against COVID-19.

The achievement comes just weeks after launching its first edition of the CTFA Youth League, which comprises the U-15 and U-18 division.

Leaders Al Duhail, who went into the tie just a point ahead of Al Rayyan, took the lead through Qatar international forward Almoez Ali's spotkick in the 49th minute.

Umm Salal, however, equalised through Ayyoub Azzi in the 52nd minute as Al Sadd moved to 43 points with four matches remaining.

The AFC’s National Team and Club competitions as well as the AFC Futsal Championship planned for Turkmenistan have been postponed since February and March but, thanks to the support of the Members, Leagues and Clubs, there is a determination to finish the competitions this year.

A total of 36 representatives from 17 MAs and domestic leagues attended the webinar which covered details on the steps of how the K League became the first major competition in Asia to resume their league following the suspension in the middle of the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among some of the topics discussed included match preparations and operations, handling of the international media attention and broadcasting coverage, fans engagement as well as other challenges.

AFC General Secretary Dato’ Windsor John opened the workshop with a welcome speech before the K League provided a comprehensive presentation on the restart of domestic football in the Korea Republic.

As part of the SOAP Learning & Development agenda, the webinar covered topics such as competition infrastructure, human resources, regulations and policies, Special Olympic Football as well as communications systems during the tournament. A total of 30 Sports Directors and Coordinators from 20 Asia Pacific Programmes participated in the webinar.

Brian See Mei Chiat, the AFC’s Head of Competition Support from Competitions and Football Events Division provided an in-depth presentation on tournament organisation, match operations and the best practical strategies on competition management.