Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuwait City: The Kuwait Football Association is aiming to formulate an action plan to meet the AFC Champions League participation criteria such as having its own club licensing system and enhancing its professional league organisation.
An AFC Special Mission Team began their inspection visit to the West Asian nation on Sunday to help further professionalise the Kuwaiti game and to help its clubs meet the AFC Champions League participation criteria.
Dr. Mohsin Al Enezi, the Assistant General Secretary of the Kuwait FA, Naser Al Shariyan, Deputy Chairman of the Kuwait FA Marketing Committee and Mahmoud Fayad, Head of Kuwait FA International Department, received the AFC delegates at Kuwat FA House.
"We understand that the club licensing system is the main objective of this inspection while we may not target to meet the ACL criteria this time,” said Al Enezi. “But as a preparation for the implementation of the club licensing system, we have drafted our club licensing regulations and inspected the stadiums of the top division clubs. We have achieved a significant improvement with the Al Shabab Stadium and the Al Nasr Stadium. We would like the AFC SMT inspection team to inspect those two stadiums.
“In the case of the club licensing system, our KFA officials visited the top division clubs many times to convince them about the introduction of the system and some of them are positive about the implementation. We are aware that we still have a long way to go, but we have partly achieved what we targeted and we are still on the way to reach our goal.
“On the Decision Method System for ACL Participation, we believe that meeting the ACL criteria in the short term should be on our master plan to be able to utilise an ACL direct slot(s) when granted based on the AFC MA Rankings. The KFA will come up with an action plan to meet the ACL criteria such as club licensing system, sport integrity and professional league organisation and its governance.
“This time, the AFC inspection team will visit two clubs - Al Qadsiya and Kuwait SC - and we hope that our clubs can learn from your inspection visit and improve further. We thank you again for the visit to Kuwait and look forward to seeing positive results and improvements.
Steve Kim, head of the AFC delegates, said: “We are also happy to come back here for the occasion of the AFC SMT inspection. Following last year's inspection, we expect to see improvements in the professional league organisation and club licensing system.
“It s good news to hear that the KFA has inspected the stadiums and that there are significant improvements with some stadiums. We look forward to visiting the facilities so that we can verify that those stadiums can host the AFC's premier club competition.
“Regarding the club licensing system, we understand the initial challenge that any country must go through and this will be a good opportunity for us to meet the clubs to further explain the. benefits and necessity of the club licensing system. We are sure that this will be of help.
“We are also excited about visiting the top two clubs in Kuwait to see their status and preparation for the club licensing system.”
Photo: KFA