Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa today joined the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) President Lambert Maltock in signing a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at strengthening the spirit of partnership and cooperation between the two Confederations.
The signing ceremony, which took place shortly after the 33rd AFC Congress in Manama, Bahrain, will pave the way for greater collaboration to explore possible future competitions between representative teams of the two Confederations in both the men’s and women’s games.
AFC President Shaikh Salman reinforced the enduring ties between the two Confederations, underlined by the first AFC-OFC MoU established in 2016.
He said: “This Memorandum of Understanding symbolises the long-standing partnership between the AFC and the OFC and reinforces our commitment to unlocking the opportunities to further expand the growth of the game in this passionate Asia-Pacific region.
“Both the AFC and the OFC share similar challenges as well as common interests and I am confident that the exchange of best practices will provide fresh impetus to take the beautiful game to even greater heights.”
Additionally, both Confederations will also seek to exchange knowledge, experience, and resources in key Administration areas including Development, Competitions, Coaching, Refereeing, Education, Legal, Communications, Commercial and Marketing, Sports Integrity, Sports Medicine, Technology and Software as well as Social Responsibility.
OFC President Maltock added: “We are pleased that the implementation of this agreement means a focus on high-level competitions between representative teams from both confederations.
The development that Oceania men and women’s teams will gain from these competitions is hugely beneficial and reinforces OFC’s commitment to the strategic pillars of development and high performance within the OFC Strategy.”
The latest MoU with OFC further underscores the AFC’s commitment towards working in close partnership with the global football family, having also signed a landmark MoU with the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) earlier in the day.
Source: The-AFC.com
