Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
As the build up to the AFC’s 60th Anniversary celebrations in Manila gathers pace, the-afc.com’s series highlighting the colour and character of Asian football turns back the clock and returns to the Philippines’ capital and recalls the origins of the Confederation.
It began in one inspired moment in 1952. The place: the Helsinki Olympic Games and perhaps inspired by what they saw at the Olympic tournament a group of football representatives from different Asian countries met and discussed the idea of forming a continental body.
By any reckoning it might have seemed like a daunting task seeing that football in Asia was still undergoing a process of evolution, with no organised structure for the sport in many countries.
Two years after that ‘Helsinki summit’ that another session with the same purpose was convened.
The second meeting took place in Manila in 1954 on the sidelines of the second Asian Games. John M. Cleland, representing the Philippines, provided the leadership at this point, as the Scottish national with a decidedly Asian outlook, helped pave the way for the third, and most significant meeting.
It was at this meeting on May 8 that year that the Asian Football Confederation was born. Present at this seminal congress were representatives from Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea Republic, Pakistan, the Philippines, Taiwan (Chinese Taipei), Singapore, and Vietnam.
The AFC Secretariat operated out of Hong Kong, with Sir Man Kam Loh serving as the confederation’s first ever President and his compatriot Lee Wai-Tong as the inaugural General Secretary.
The following month, on June 21 to be specific, the AFC would be given international recognition when it was sanctioned by the global game’s governing body at a meeting in Berne, Switzerland, with an AFC representative invited to sit on the FIFA Executive Committee and in the 60 years that followed Asian football would develop exponentially as the AFC evolved into one of the most dynamic sport administrations around.