There is no Chinese representative in the additional executive committee of the AFC, and the "icebreaking" of Chinese football and foreign affairs needs to be accelerated

The official website of Beijing Youth Daily

2024-05-16 16:25Posted on the official account of Beijing Beiqing.com

The 34th AFC General Assembly was held on May 16 in Bangkok, Thailand. According to the agenda, the AFC by-elected two members of the Executive Committee by voting, namely Chung Mong-kyu, a Korean member from the East Asia region and president of the Korean Football Association, and Mikigna Makhmadareva, a female member of Tajikistan from the Central Asian region. It is worth noting that none of the 30 members of the new AFC Executive Committee are from the Chinese Football Association. How to regain lost ground at the level of football foreign affairs will become an important topic that the Chinese Football Association needs to tackle next.

For a long time, in order to balance the interests of its major regional football confederations, the AFC has elected various decision-making members, including members of the executive committee, in accordance with the quota of each region. In other words, the AFC will generally allocate the number of FIFA Council members, vice-presidents, and members of the Executive Committee to the regional football confederations in proportion. Specifically, the two executive committee members in this by-election have actually been confirmed to be allocated to the East Asia Region and the Central Asia Region Football Confederation respectively. This is also the reason why Zheng Mengkui and Makhmadareva were successfully elected as the only candidates from East Asia and Central Asia respectively. In other words, this by-election is just a formality under the current competition pattern of various interest groups in the AFC.

Zheng Mengkui

Makhmadareva

It is worth noting that in the AFC general election held in Bahrain last year, no representative of the Chinese Football Association was elected. Before and after the meeting, Chinese football is experiencing a new round of anti-corruption storm. Including some of the main leaders of the previous Chinese Football Association, a number of Football Association officials or well-known figures in the circle were involved in corruption scandals and were subject to legal adjudication. This has also seriously damaged the credibility of Chinese football, especially the Chinese Football Association. In this case, it will be very difficult for representatives of the Chinese Football Association to re-enter the decision-making level of international football organizations such as FIFA and AFC, at least in the short term.

As we all know, Chinese football has repeatedly suffered setbacks in the international competition arena, in addition to the reason for its own lack of hard power, it is also related to the unfair treatment it has received. For example, in terms of the selection of referees for the competition and the scheduling of the event, the interests of the Chinese national team have been damaged. This also reflects the lack of strong external support for Chinese football on issues involving the competitive interests of football. And once the Chinese Football Association has "no one in the DPRK" at the decision-making level of the international football organization for a long time, then Chinese football may suffer greater losses.

Because of this, since Song Kai, chairman of the Chinese Football Association, took the opportunity to participate in major events in international football to meet and communicate with the main leaders of FIFA, AFC and relevant member associations.

Taking the opportunity of going to Bangkok to attend the AFC and FIFA congresses respectively, Song Kai has completed a meeting with UEFA President Ceferin. Next, Song Kai also plans to complete a meeting with FIFA President Gianni Infantino after last December. In addition to making friends in international football through face-to-face communication, Song Kai also hopes to deepen the exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and foreign football through sincere dialogue, so as to win back the credibility of Chinese football and the Chinese Football Association at the international football level and win more favorable external conditions. And this is also an important premise for Chinese football to regain lost ground at the level of foreign affairs.

Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Xiao Yun

Editor/Wang Fan

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