Dear football family,

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On behalf of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), it gives me great pleasure to invite you to our first Academic Centre of Excellence programme. 

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The last two years have been unprecedented and amongst the toughest periods for everyone around the globe as COVID-19 emerged to become the greatest medical and economic crisis of our time.

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Despite the uncertainties and challenges, the AFC was able to resume football safely and successfully, thanks to the devotion, commitment and unity demonstrated by our Member Associations (MAs), Regional Associations (RAs) and all football stakeholders.

 

Success on-the-pitch is only guaranteed by our dedicated work off-the-pitch; and all our work off the pitch is guaranteed by the professionalism and pursuit of excellence of each individual involved in our beautiful game. 

With off-the-pitch development in mind, we have established the AFC Academic Centre of Excellence with its core values of inspiring excellence, instilling innovation, creating future leaders, inculcating a passion for football education, and leading by example.

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The Academy places a strong emphasis on interactive teaching and learning, with a vision and mission to enable football professionals to acquire the knowledge and skills relating to analysis, problem-solving, creativity and decision-making required in today’s dynamic world of football business. Contextualised and oriented to the needs of the Asian region, the Academy will bring ‘Asian football’ to the core.

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We truly hope this series of educational programmes will allow us to maximise the potential of our football professionals, and at the same time, develop the capabilities of our future leaders in the football community to hand over this great game in even better shape than we inherited it.

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I urge all our MAs, RAs and stakeholders to seize the opportunity presented by the AFC Academic Centre of Excellence. Together, I am confident that we will strengthen the foundations for Asian football to continue on its path to success.

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Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa
AFC President