AFC launches ’60 Minutes’ campaign

Kuala Lumpur, Nov 27, 2013: The AFC Executive Committee on Tuesday stamped its approval on the home-and-away final of the AFC Champions League for the next three years and also approved the slot allocation for 2014.

As per the criteria governing the distribution of spots for the premier club competition of the continent, Japan, Korea Republic, Iran and Saudi Arabia will receive four direct slots in the group phase of the competition.

The committee also gave its go-head to play the AFC Champions League on a zonal basis until the semi-finals for the next three years.

The other recommendations of the AFC Competitions Committee and other standing committees were also approved.

At the outset, AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa presented his report to the members on activities following the last AFC Executive Committee meeting in July.

He informed the members on his visits to Iran, China, Brunei Darussalam, the Philippines and Indonesia and praised the respective Member Associations for the efforts they have put in for the development of the game.

With regards to the issues faced by the Iraq Football Association, he said AFC has zero tolerance policy on government interference and AFC will actively get involved in the process of restoring the Iraq FA administration along side FIFA.

ACL SLOT ALLOCATION FOR 2014

EAST

Japan – 4

Korea Republic – 4

China – 3+1

Australia – 2+1

Thailand – 1+2

Singapore – 0+1

Hong Kong – 0+1

Vietnam – 0+1

WEST

Iran – 4

Saudi Arabia – 4

UAE – 3+1

Qatar – 2+2

Uzbekistan – 1+2

India – 0+1 (India to play in East Zone)

Jordan – 0+1

Oman – 0+1

Bahrain – 0+1

Iraq – 0+1

Kuwait – 0+1

AFC launches ’60 Minutes’ campaign

In an effort to reduce time-wasting and encourage more playing time, the AFC launched the ’60 Minutes – Don’t Delay. Play!’ campaign. Extensive studies undertaken by AFC found out that the actual average playing time in all AFC competitions is around 52.07 minutes, which is 7.25 minutes lesser than FIFA competitions, which are considered a global benchmark, and 11.50 minutes lesser than major European leagues.

Asian teams still have eight more minutes of actual play to catch up with the FIFA average and the ’60 Minutes’ campaign has been designed in such a way that it will add value to AFC’s competitions and each match in particular. An increase in average actual playing time is expected to lead to several gains, particularly value and excitement for the fans, improvement in technical quality of play, more broadcasting interest and, with better marketing, more access to resources to invest in football. A concerted effort to promote ’60 Minutes’ will be undertaken with a series of measures, including education programmes for referees, coaches and teams, and proactive application of the advantage rule and minimisation of fouls.

The ’60 Minutes’ campaign will be begin on December 10, 2013, during the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup draws and will culminate with the AFC Asian Cup 2015 in Australia. —- AFC