AFC President congratulates Iran, 2015 AFC Women’s Futsal champions

His full message is reproduced below.

"I would like to congratulate Iran for being crowned the first ever AFC Women’s Futsal Champions! As the first winners of the trophy, their name will be written in AFC competition history.

The AFC Women’s Futsal Championship 2015 Malaysia was the first pan-Asian women’s futsal championship and the launch of the new tournament places the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) at the forefront of global women’s futsal development. No other confederation currently has an equivalent competition. The tournament garnered wide interest on the AFC social media channels, with record numbers of hits on the AFC YouTube channel.

I am proud to say that the AFC is playing a leading role in taking women’s futsal forward. Futsal is growing steadily in Asia and as an indoor sport it is particularly suitable to Asia’s demanding climates and urban areas with scarce outdoor space.

The popularity of futsal and beach soccer is growing in Asia, with new players signing up across the continent, from the West, Central, East, North and the South. This positive development is good news also for football as both futsal and beach soccer can develop skilful future footballers for Asia.

Futsal as a high-tempo game, like beach soccer, challenges players to make quick, tactical and often imaginative decisions and this has persuaded many Member Associations to recognise the unique role futsal and beach soccer have in player development.

As the governing body of Asian football, the AFC aims to provide the right platform for the development of futsal and beach soccer for its Member Associations. Both games can help develop Asian football at the grassroots and youth level. They can also bring glory for Asia, as our teams get better and begin to challenge the world’s best for the top global prizes.

Once again, congratulations to Iran for their deserved win!"