The AFC Social Responsibility Committee reinforced its ambitions to maximise the impact of the beautiful game to enrich and empower the Continent’s most marginalised communities after approving several key decisions today at its third meeting held in Riyadh, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Kicking off the proceedings, Chairperson Zaw Zaw hailed the upcoming AFC Dream Asia Foundation Conference 2025 to be held in the Kingdom tomorrow as a breakthrough moment for social responsibility on the Continent.
At the same time, members of the Committee were also quick to convey the appreciation of the Asian football family to the Active Sports Centre, an organisation based in Malaysia, for their generous contribution of 5,000 footballs to the AFC Dream Asia Foundation (ADAF).
Subsequently, following requests from several Member Associations (MAs), the Committee approved the allocation of these footballs to the Afghanistan Football Federation, the All Nepal Football Association, Federação Futebol de Timor-Leste (FFTL), the Lao Football Federation (LFF), the Football Association of Maldives (FAM), the Philippine Football Federation (PFF), and the Syrian Football Association (SFA).
The Committee also approved the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF): Play On Period Programme, which targets the normalisation of menstrual education and access within the South Asian football ecosystem, focusing on coaching staff, female players, and football infrastructure across all seven SAFF MAs.
Scheduled to be implemented from March 2026 to January 2027, the programme will develop and implement basic menstrual education for coaching staff and MA safeguarding teams by normalising open conversations on periods to break the stigma and silence, whilst ensuring access to menstrual hygiene products within football infrastructure.Underscoring the importance of forging strategic partnerships, the Committee also mandated the Administration to explore suitable collaborations with international and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) through Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) as part of efforts to enhance the reach and effectiveness of social responsibility programmes by leveraging broader expertise, networks, and resources, leading to more meaningful outcomes.
The decision, the Committee noted, will pave the way for the AFC, and its MAs and Regional Associations (RAs), to establish clear frameworks, strengthen accountability, promote shared objectives, ensure mutual understanding of roles and responsibilities, and streamline programme implementation.
Members of the Committee were also pleased with the plans to expand the scope of programmes implemented under the ADAF, which will now add Sustainability and Health & Wellbeing to its three existing pillars: Child Safeguarding, Education, and Inclusion.
The strategic move will not only enhance the ADAF’s ability to deliver more broad-based programmes that align with the industry’s best practices, such as the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but also respond more effectively to those who are in need.
The Committee was also briefed on the successful outcomes of recent initiatives, including the Central Asian Football Association (CAFA): Child Safeguarding Seminar 2025, the UN Football for the Goals Forum 2025, the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF): Competition Safeguarding Seminar 2024, and various MA-driven activities since the last meeting.
Similarly, the growing number of MAs and RAs aligning their messages, strategies, and operations with the UN Football for the Goals initiative as well as the appointment of dedicated Child Safeguarding Officers across nearly all of the AFC’s members was also lauded by the Committee.
All decisions will be submitted to the AFC Dream Asia Foundation Board of Trustees for approval and subsequently to the AFC Executive Committee for ratification.
