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As excitement ramps up ahead of the return of the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup next month, participating clubs received a timely refresher of competitions’ ins and outs earlier this week.
With the 2023/24 editions of both tournaments set to kick off with the first round of Group Stage matches on September 18, the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) Competitions & Football Events Division successfully conducted the AFC Cup™ and AFC Champions League™ Workshops on Wednesday and Friday respectively.
A total of 150 club representatives were hosted at the InterContinental Kuala Lumpur hotel in Malaysia for the workshops, which sandwiched the official Group Stage draw ceremonies of both competitions that took place on Thursday.
Over the course of the full-day programmes, the 86 teams involved – 40 in the AFC Champions League and 36 for the AFC Cup – were provided with greater clarity on the latest updates to the competition regulations as well as matters pertaining to safety and security, infotainment, legal, commercial rights, commercial operations, media and broadcast, medical and social media usage.
Furthermore, the participants were briefed on the groundbreaking initiatives for the 2024/25 season that were unveiled last week, which will see the introduction of three new club competitions alongside the maiden edition of the AFC Women’s Champions League.
Participants were also able to glean insights from presentations on competition best practices by guest speakers from UEFA and CONCACAF, delivered by Alexander Higgins, Senior Match Operations Manager at UEFA, Simon Pallmann, Football Operations Specialist at UEFA, and Matias Tettamanti, Head of Club Competitions at CONCACAF.
Additionally, two leading figures from Aspetar – a prestigious orthopaedic and sports medicine hospital – were also present to share their expertise, namely Professor Karim Chamari, Head of Aspetar Sports Injury and Illness Prevention Programme (ASPREV) Operations and Dr. Montassar Tabben, Scientific Researcher at ASPREV.
AFC Deputy General Secretary, Competitions and Football Events, Shin Man Gil said: “These workshops have been organised to ensure that we understand our roles and responsibilities in ensuring that we continue to maintain our world-class standards.
“All of you have an important role to play in delivering another great club competition season. Let’s work hand in hand to ensure the 2023/24 season is even more thrilling and memorable than 2022.”
