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The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) conducted its second AFC Women’s Football Special Online Session on Thursday to discuss learnings from the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup – India at a time when Asian teams are preparing for the FIFA Women’s World Cup next year, which will be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
The virtual session was led by AFC Technical Director Andy Roxburgh and was attended by almost 100 participants from 35 Member Associations.
The workshop commenced with opening remarks from Roxburgh after which the AFC Head of Women’s Football, Bai Lili presented an overview of the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup – India, in which she also served as the Head of the Technical Study Group (TSG). The tournament, which was won by China PR for the ninth time, witnessed a massive surge in TV viewership as well as engagement on social media.
This was followed by an insightful presentation from UEFA’s Jarmo Matikainen, who used the example of the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 to highlight some of the prominent trends that were conspicuous during the European contest, such as the noticeable evolution of the role of defenders in the attacking half and the growing importance of transitional set-ups.
The second half of the programme, titled “Women’s Football in Asia: New Horizons”, discussed the prospects of Asian teams in the upcoming edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, and laid emphasis on factors such as physiologically adapting to the environment, mental preparation, and balancing work and recovery on an individual level – all of which are integral in the preparation phase leading up to a high- pressure tournament.
Finally, the participants were given updates on some of the recent achievements of the Confederation’s MAs, such as the Japan Football Association’s Girls’ Academy Fukushima, and Bangladesh Football Federation’s Girls’ Academy becoming the first ever girls’ academies to be endorsed by the AFC Elite Youth Scheme, after which the workshop broke into an engaging and open dialogue.
Before concluding the workshop, Roxburgh said: “The previous edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France had set new standards and our focus should be on bettering that. We must also aim to use this contest to stimulate the next generation of world class Asian players, coaches, and referees.”
