Courtesy: AFC.com

Kuala Lumpur: Asian champions in the FIFA Futsal World Cup in the year 2024?

Yes, indeed.

This is one of the lofty goals for Asian futsal as set out in an Asian Futsal Strategic Plan 20013-2018 unveiled on Saturday at a FIFA/AFC Futsal Seminar on the FIFA/AFC Futsal World Cup 2012 legacy for Asia in the Malaysian capital.

AFC Futsal Development Director Ali Targholizadeh revealed the plan during the seminar attended by 48 coaches and AFC Elite Futsal Coaching Instructors.

The seminar aimed to analyse the performance of Asian teams at the 2012 FIFA Futsal World Cup Thailand, compare their show with that of the top teams, discuss new trends in futsal and exchange information on latest trends.

Targholizadeh has laid down the plan by MAs’ performance, local competitions, coach and referee development, women’s futsal, youth and grassroots goals.

"In 2007, only one country in Asia had a league but in 2012 this number jumped to 15 countries. In 2018 we would like to see 37 MAs with their own leagues,” he said.

“In the 1992 and 1996 Futsal World Cups, we won the fourth place and in the years 2000 and 2008, we won the fifth place. In 2004 we reached the group stage and in 2012 five teams were in the finals.

“So what we’re aiming next in the 2016 edition is to get back the fourth spot, then come 2020 we want to see four futsal nations in the World Cup and finally in 2024, we plan to become the champions.”

However, this achievement is not going to come rolling and so Targholizadeh spelt out the necessary development in all aspects of the game namely coaching, refereeing, women’s, youth and grassroots.

“I still remember when we had only one futsal coaching course for the whole continent in 2006. The number steadily and encouragingly grew to 116 courses last year and for this year, we plan to double it to 212 and by 2018, we aspire to have six to eight courses in each of the 47 member associations.

“It’s the same for the referees where we had one course only throughout Asia in 2006. Our goal is organise one course for each of 37 member associations in 2018.

“As for women’s futsal, we currently have only three AFC Women’s Futsal Instructors. Our target is to have one elite women’s instructor in each of 14 MAs in 2018.

“At the present time, there is no proper organisation of MAs’ futsal grassroots festivals for six to 12 year olds. Come 2018, we want such a festival with between 200 and 1,500 participants in each of the 47 member associations.

“Only Iran, Japan, China and Thailand have their own grassroots futsal leagues but this will change in 2018 when we have a school futsal league in at least 23 nations.

“As for youth, there are only three nations with competitions and this also we plan to increase to minimum 23 countries.

“So this is our vision, our Vision 2018,” concluded Targholizadeh.





Posted by Kevin Hartwell