The Silver Membership was awarded to the Jordan Football Association (JFA), while Vietnam Football Federation ((VFF) and the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) were given Bronze Memberships.

The AFC Grassroots Charter is a development tool with the aim of raising the quality of grassroots programmes across the Continent. It identifies 20 performance categories such as grassroots competitions, fairplay, partnerships and personal development.

The three-day conference attracted 100 dedicated grassroots representatives from 41 Members Associations (MA) who share and support the AFC’s Vision to ensure that football remains as the most popular sport in Asia.

In his keynote address, AFC Technical Director Andy Roxburgh stressed on the importance of ‘The Serious Business of Fun Football.”

Three new AFC Special Grassroots Awards were introduced this year and claiming the first-ever Best Grassroots Leader 2018 award was Cheah Swee Ming of Brunei Darussalam, followed by Malaysia’s Matrix Community FC as the Best Grassroots Club 2018 and the JFA Festival in Japan clinching the Best Grassroots Project 2018 award.
Rada Krishan Nadesan of Malaysia claimed runner-up in the Best Grassroots Leader 2018 while Australia’s Lochinvar Rovers FC and SALT Academy of the Football Federation of Cambodia finished second in the Best Grassroots Club 2018 and Best Grassroots Project 2018 respectively.

Since its launch two years ago, the AFC Grassroots Conference has reinforced its vision to ensure that football remains the most popular sport in Asia.

“Some people play for recreation, while others play in serious, regular competitions. Very, very few play professionally but we have to remember that all top stars were once grassroots players. Grassroots football is about mass participation - it is football for all,” said AFC Technical Director Andy Roxburgh.

The three-day conference will not only provide a timely retrospective of what the Asian football family has achieved since 2016, but also exchange ideas, discuss grassroots football, make proposals for future developments and foster further exchange between the MAs.

AFC Grassroots manager Masahiro Sugiyama gave the participants an overview of the latest developments in grassroots following the success of the AFC Grassroots Football Day which saw a new participation record with 61,027 people from 41 MAs.

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, and JFA has excelled in all criteria.

The importance of the grassroots is deeply rooted in the JFA and its 47 Member Football Associations  across the island nation of a 120 million population, where the focus on promoting and developing can be found in all levels in its football structure.

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 GFA.

The grassroots philosophy of GFA is outlined within its Long-Term Player Development (LTDP) Model that provides guidelines for player development in seven stages, from the age of five to promoting optimal physical, emotional, psychological, mental, technical and tactical growth.

Participation growth of grassroots football has witnessed tremendous growth over the past 10 years. In 2016, GFA recorded 4020 participation of both boys and girls, almost doubled from their efforts in 2006.

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, and FAS has met all the criteria in the charter.

FAS’ attention on grassroots activities includes both boys and girls and in recent years, tremendous focus was given to women’s projects to encourage participation through various women’s events, competitions and programmes, such as the FAS Women’s Premier League, and FAS U14 Girls League, among others, as well as organising FIFA’s quarterly ‘Live Your Goal’ festivals.