Today (October 12), the 35th Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Championship was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. World Football Federation President Gianni Infantino sent his congratulations online.
At the beginning, the AFCFC Congress observed a minute of silence, expressing condolences to the victims as well as the officials, supervisors, and referees of Asia who passed away in the past year.
At the ceremony, AFC President Shaikh Salman highlighted AFC's increased financial investment in Member Federations (MAs) and Regional Federations (RAs). The Congress approved the 2025 and 2026 budgets, along with the audited financial report for 2024, in which it noted that AFC's total investment expenditure increased by 63.9%, reaching 303 million USD in 2024.
"The AFC has strengthened its commitment to developing the king of sports across the continent by boosting investment to establish more specialized support programs and comprehensive development programs for member federations and regional federations," Chairman Shaikh Salman affirmed.
On this occasion, the AFC President congratulated Japan and Iran on their early tickets to the FIFA World Cup 2026, and sent his best wishes to the AFC representatives who will participate in the upcoming FIFA tournaments.
AFC revealed that it is likely to consider submitting bidding documents for both the 2031 and 2035 Asian Cups at the same Games, as part of a long-term strategy to improve planning for Asian football. In the near future, AFC will coordinate with registered member federations to complete documents and records according to the set schedule and process.
In addition, the AFC Executive Committee has approved the decisions of the Standing Committee, the Asian Cup Organizing Committee, the AFC Finance Committee, the AFC Competition Committee and the AFC Professional Football Committee...
On the sidelines of the AFC Games, President of the Vietnam Football Federation - Mr. Tran Quoc Tuan and President of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) Song Kai discussed and agreed to sign a MoU to enhance cooperation to promote development between the two football regions.
This further affirms the good relationship between the two Federations as well as the determination to accompany and aim for the goals of improving the quality of football in the two countries.
In 2024, the CFA invited Vietnam national teams (national women's, national women's futsal, national U21, national U19 men's and national U16 men's) to compete in international friendly tournaments with quality guests.
Currently, VFF has signed cooperation agreements with the Football Federations of Japan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, South Korea, Brazil... and soon the CFA.
Strengthening international cooperation with Federations with strong football development will create more favorable conditions to help Vietnamese football continue to advance with more success in the future.
