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The Kyrgyz Football Union (KFU) and the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) have been endorsed as Bronze members in the AFC Grassroots Charter, bringing the total to 38 approved Member Associations (MAs) in the highly-acclaimed technical initiative.
The KFU has prepared an extensive grassroots plan which covers different age-groups, for boys and girls, with the focus on player programmes, grassroots competitions and football education for adults.
Their grassroots initiatives have also reached different communities through activities such as the football festivals for boys and girls and for those with disabilities, educational courses for adults and age-group competitions.
In efforts to promote football among school children, a school league for U-15 and U-17 players was launched while tournaments for U-13 and U-16 for girls are also organised regularly. Additionally, a project aimed at leveraging the unifying impact of football will also take place in 2022 for children aged between six to 14 years old.
KFU’s Technical Director Anarbek Ormombekov said: “Grassroots football is an important component of the game. Over the past few years, KFU has invested a lot of effort in the development in this area and we have achieved some results. This Bronze status from the Asian Football Confederation is a result of our work and it provides motivation to continue grassroots development in our country.”
Meanwhile, FFSL has put a strong emphasis on child protection by promoting ‘C.O.A.C.H.E.S’ (conditioning, overuse, advance, check, hydration, equipment and safety) which are fundamental guidelines in their grassroots activities.
They are continuously engaging educational authorities in the country and have laid-out a campaign for 2020-2024 titled ‘Football for All,’ which will target different communities including clubs, people with disabilities, schools, futsal, women, children, veterans and football academies.
Additionally, FFSL aims to enhance the quality of coaches by organising ‘C’ and ‘D’ license courses and have launched an ambassadors’ programme for grassroots football to assist them in spreading the sport to the wider community.
FFSL Technical Director Amir Alagic said: “Grassroots football is one of the key pillars of our strategic plan as we believe that players should enjoy playing football. FFSL aims to include half a million children of both gender in its grassroots programme until the end of 2026. Getting the AFC Bronze Level is a huge step forward to achieve our goal.”
The AFC Grassroots Charter is a development tool that aims to raise the quality of Asian grassroots programmes. It identifies 20 performance categories including competitions, fairplay, partnerships and personal development.
