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The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) conducted the 2nd AFC Grassroots Special Online Session on Thursday to discuss ways of maximising the potential of the grassroots movement.
With over 90 participants taking part, the attendees first received an update on the status of the AFC Grassroots Charter membership which currently endorses four members at the Gold level while 10 Member Associations (MAs) hold a Silver-level membership, and 25 MAs are in the Bronze category.
Chaired by the Technical Director of the AFC, Andy Roxburgh, the session was a fruitful exercise that gave grassroots leaders a platform to hear from some of the most renowned grassroots specialists on the best ways to enhance the development programmes in their respective MAs.
Robin Russell, the AFC Grassroots and Youth Football Development Consultant, outlined several reasons on the importance of establishing regular competitions, such as strengthening the foundations of club structure and increasing the scope of identifying talented youth players.
Russell said: “A major challenge that many MAs face is the lack of ‘football citizens’, such as parents who can volunteer at grassroots events to take place. Long term association from childhood tends to foster strong bonds with clubs and more people turn up to support such activities.”
Russell’s engaging segment was followed by another enlightening session where Alexandre Gros and Antonio Buenaño, the FIFA Football for Schools’ Project Leader and Technical Consultant respectively, who spoke extensively on the FIFA Football for Schools programme.
“We use football as a vehicle to teach children life skills. We can’t forget that while we train thousands of children, only a handful will become professional footballers but all of them need to be taught lessons, such as team spirit and fair play, to go forward in life,” explained Gros.
“Moreover, it helps the schools ensure that the children are staying in school and not on the streets, and are engaging in enough physical activity,” he added.
His sentiments were shared by Buenaño who shed light on the dual objective of the programme which balances football activities with the teaching of life skills.
The two presentations from the FIFA representatives opened up an excellent discussion for the participants to understand how to incorporate some of the highlighted tenets into their own grassroots programmes.
Roxburgh remarked: “Due to the lack of regular competitions, many people don’t get a chance to play. Asia is home to 60% of the world’s population and the potential is waiting to be unlocked. The challenge is to provide young people with the opportunity to play football on a regular basis.”
