Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has reaffirmed its commitment to prepare the continent’s brightest talents for future success as the AFC Elite Youth Panel concluded its first meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.
Youth football and technical specialists met to examine the current state of youth football development and discuss ways to support and promote the future of elite youth pathways in Asia through progressive coach education and enlightened player development.
With the launch of the AFC’s Vision and Mission in January this year, youth football development remains a key area of focus for the AFC to ensure podium success for Member Associations (MAs) on the world stage. To realise this vision, members of the panel agreed there was a need to design and implement an AFC Youth Academy Endorsement Scheme to expand and improve the youth academy programmes and strategies currently deployed by MAs.
The new Endorsement Scheme, which is still in the conceptualisation phase, will present MAs with three progressive categories, – basic (one star), advanced (two stars) and premier (three stars) levels.
This structure aims to stimulate a long-term commitment to embed an ethos of excellence in youth academies across the continent. The members on the panel agreed unanimously with the concept of the scheme, as well as the basic principles and strategy for implementing the project.
AFC Technical Director, Andy Roxburgh emphasised the need to enhance the level of elite youth academies in Asia. “Some of the best associations in the world have been implementing this academy endorsement process”, he explained. “Our aim here is to create the building blocks of an AFC endorsement scheme – one that adopts the world’s best practices and sets benchmarks – to elevate the level of elite youth development throughout the continent."
The AFC Elite Youth Panel represents the final piece in the AFC’s holistic approach to develop the game at all levels, supporting the work currently undertaken by two newly formed technical panels in Grassroots and Coach Education – both of which concluded their inaugural meetings in February.
Photo: AFC