In our Friday brief, a milestone for Japan’s new professional women’s league, Ali Adnan looks forward to a West Asian World Cup, a move for a Tajikistan veteran and much more.

With three AFC Champions League titles within its clubs and a number of the finest Asian players from Australia to Syria, the 2020-21 Saudi Pro League presents plenty of excitement. the-AFC.com looks at five captivating storylines to follow in the upcoming season.

With the successful conclusion of the AFC Champions League 2020 (West) in Qatar recently, as well as the upcoming preparations to host the East region matches next month, the AFC noted that the QFA met all the necessary hosting capability and capacity and medical infrastructure to host the Final of Asia’s premier club competition.

Similarly when it comes to football, the National Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (NFABD) became affiliated to FIFA only in 1972, but the beautiful game had taken root long before.

Located on the north coast of Borneo – the island is also home to territory belonging to Malaysia and Indonesia – Brunei’s landmass is less than 6,000 square kilometres. Despite its tiny population of less than half a million, the country's footballing passion is as rich as their abundant national resources in gas and oil with football being the undisputed No1 sport. Today, football is played throughout the country's four districts at both grassroots and professional level.

The new calendar also means that the majority of the 2020-21 season will be played concurrently with the grassroots football season.

The 161 men’s matches will be played over 23 weeks, with the Grand Final set for June, and the women’s 57 games will finish with a Grand Final in April.

Two friendly matches, to be played on November 14 and 17 at the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium, will serve as a warm up for the Asian giants ahead of the resumption of the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and AFC Asian Cup China 2023 next year.

Wuhan defeated Jiangsu Suning 4-0 in Sunday's final and it was also a personal triumph for midfielder Wang.

Wang, the 2018 AFC Women's Player of the Year, was among the millions of Wuhan residents who were locked down in their homes for more than two months from late January as the city battled the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus and the 25-year-old kept fit by training indoors and missed the Women's Olympic Qualifiers in Australia.