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The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) will introduce the Advance 11 initiative in 2019 to continue its efforts to maximise the potential of its Member Associations (MA).
As part of the AFC’s commitment to help its MAs, this new initiative was launched as a platform for MAs to further improve their governance and management in football.
The introduction of the Advance 11 is aimed at helping the MAs measure and benchmark their capabilities against a set of guidelines incorporating 11 key functions which covers legal and governance, finance and risk, administration, logistic and IT, human resource, facilities management and maintenance.
The guidelines also focus on marketing and branding, commercial and business development, stakeholder relations, leadership and management of national teams and competitions and club management.
The system and methodology of the Advance 11 are designed to improve the MAs objectives and efficiencies while ultimately helping MAs to self-evaluate and identify areas which require attention and focus.
A pilot Advance 11 was conducted in 2018 in all MAs focusing on financial management. Based on the assessment, a fourth Core Development Goal – all MAs to implement a comprehensive financial management system – was identified.
As part of the pilot, the management of national football leagues was also measured and the best performing MAs of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Vietnam earned awards in the Inspiring and Developing League categories respectively at the 2018 SPIA Conference & Awards.
“In 10 years since turning fully professional and establishing the Pro League Committee, the UAE Pro League has grown from strength-to-strength and winning this SPIA award is a recognition of how far football in the country has developed,” said CEO of the Pro League Committee, Waleed Ebrahim Al Hosani.
President and General Director of Vietnam Professional Football Tran Anh Tu, who received the award said, “Football is a very popular sport in our country and we are continuously thinking of new ways to improve the league and continue efforts to further develop the sport in Vietnam.”
The Advance 11 will be delivered in stages to achieve optimum results. It will begin through a review process which can be conducted by the MA itself or as a self-appraisal by using guidelines provided by the AFC. This first step is aimed at measuring the capabilities and challenges of the MA.
