Who We Are
Anchored in the core values of inspiring excellence, instilling innovation and the passion for football education, creating future leaders and leadership by example, the AFC Academic Centre of Excellence has commenced with the delivery of two main programmes – the AFC Football Management Certificate (FMC) and the AFC Football Management Diploma (FMD).
Both the FMC and FMD are open to the AFC’s Member Associations (MAs), Regional Associations (RAs), football stakeholders and independent applicants each designed in partnership with the AFC’s academic partner – the renowned Football Business Academy (FBA) based in Switzerland.
In his message to prospective participants, AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said: “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 the launch of the AFC Academic Centre of Excellence, the AFC is committed to nurturing the future leaders of Asian football by placing a strong emphasis on interactive 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.
“We truly hope this series of educational programmes will allow the Asian football family 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.”
The FMC and FMD provide a dynamic and comprehensive curriculum while nurturing football-specific skill sets and industry knowledge to enable future leaders to plan, execute and monitor the day-to-day operations in all aspects of football management.
The programmes offer insightful modules which include the Organisation of World Football, International Sports Federations, Strategic Management, Financial Management, Income Generation, Media and Communications, Event Management, Operational Management, Human Resource Management, Child Safeguarding, Social Responsibility, Sports Law and Club Licensing.
The FMC will be held over five months, comprising five live online sessions with participants undertaking 290 hours of study across nine core modules, while the FMD will be conducted over 13 months, consisting of 5-10 live online sessions over 12 core modules held over 460 hours of study.
President's Message
Dear football family,
On behalf of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), it gives me great pleasure to invite you to our first Academic Centre of Excellence programme.
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.
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.
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General Secretary's Message
Dear football family,
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the AFC Academic Centre of Excellence.
The AFC will introduce new programmes under our Academy. To begin with, in 2021, we are pleased to introduce two online programmes - the AFC Football Management Certificate (FMC) and the AFC Football Management Diploma (FMD).
These new programmes represent a progressive step as we strive to develop the future leaders of Asian football. It will equip our Member Associations (MAs), Regional Associations (RAs) and football stakeholders with the strategic and administrative competencies needed to elevate Asian football to even greater heights in the long term.