Led by AFC Technical Director Andy Roxburgh, the meeting commenced with a comprehensive presentation on the global development of the coaching convention. Current United Arab Emirates Football Association (UAE FA) and former Royal Belgian Football Federation Technical Director Michel Sablon was quoted about the success of the UEFA Coaching Convention and the impact it had on their members.

The meeting commenced with updates on the widely-acclaimed AFC Coaching Convention, which has seen a total of 30 Member Associations (MA) endorsed, as Chinese Taipei received their “B” status while Singapore joined 17 MAs to apply to progress from the “B” to “Pro” level.

AFC Technical Director Andy Roxburgh said: “Member Associations that have launched the Coaching Convention may be at different stages, but they share the same objective, which is to facilitate the cross-border movement of coaches, improve standards of education and coaching as well as establish and protect the coaching profession.”

Representatives from 14 MAs deliberated on the criteria of the AFC Coaching Diploma, focusing on areas which include the establishment of structure, the requirements of the Coach Education Tutors as well as the Coaching Diploma and Goalkeeping Diploma at different levels.

The AFC Coach Education Online Sessions 2021, which aims to increase the MAs endorsements and to support them with the best practices, was also introduced to the panel members during the meeting. More topics such as the evaluation schedule, regulations and future opportunities were also discussed.

AFC Technical Director Andy Roxburgh, who underlined the basic principle of coach education in the opening speech, said: “Better coach education leads to better coaches, and that in turn leads to better players and better teams. It is all about raising standards at all levels of the game.”

The 16 coach education experts present in the meeting discussed the key issues of the AFC Coaching Convention and evaluation challenges faced after Wim Koevermans, the AFC Principal Coaching Consultant, introduced updates on the endorsement process of the AFC Coaching Convention.

The former Arsenal manager, who experienced the Asian game when he was coach of Nagoya Grampus Eight in Japan, joined former Liverpool and France manager Gerard Houllier to discuss football management and the support that should be offered to modern coaches.

With the aim of improving the level of coaching and quality of teams as well as raising the standards of football in Asia, 19 Member Association (MA) representatives, which included three female specialists for the first time, deliberated on key issues concerning the AFC Coaching Convention.

Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) invited several distinguished football instructors from different football academies and clubs to the digital classrooms to share their football philosophy and training methodology.

Berdimyrat Nurmyradov, the Technical Director of FFT, highlighted the importance of the course as Turkmenistan prepares to host the AFC Futsal Championship 2020 for the first time from February 26 to March 8.