It's fairly absurd that the World Cup a full generation away from us in 2026 is critical for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting bids, but there's a chain reaction if China signals even a little more firmly that it will bid for the 2026 World Cup before FIFA's 24-man Executive Committee makes its determinations on 2018 and 2022 in December.

More good news is emerging as the United States looks to bring the 2018 or 2022 World Cup home. China's Football Association has expressed interest in bidding for the 2026 World Cup. If the bid moves forward, China would be a strong candidate; FIFA would love to bring the world's biggest sporting event to the world's most populous nation.

Representatives of the Asian Football Confederation have highlighted the continent's increasing development at the FIFA World Cup tournament in South Africa, with two of the four, Japan and South Korea, making it through the group stage to the second round. Australia and North Korea go no further. After South Korea's qualification was confirmed, AFC president, Mohamed Bin Hammam said, "their

Representatives of the Asian Football Confederation have highlighted the continent's increasing development at the FIFA World Cup tournament in South Africa, with two of the four, Japan and South Korea, making it through the group stage to the second round. Australia and North Korea go no further. After South Korea's qualification was confirmed, AFC president, Mohamed Bin Hammam said, "their

By AVI CREDITOR

Landon Donovan has won over everyone from Everton's manager to teammates to the UK media since his loan spell in England began early last month.

Now he has won over Everton's fans as well.

Donovan was named Everton's Player of the Month, an award voted on by the Toffees' supporters.

FIFA World Cup With the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa only one month away, 11 countries are looking further ahead to hosting the 2018 or 2022 events. Europe is expected to win the 2018 hosting rights with England, Russia, Spain/Portugal and Holland/Belgium in the running. The USA and Australia are bidding for 2018 but also join Qatar, South Korea and Japan for 2022.

Australia are sure to win the rights to host the Asia Cup in 2015, we're the only bidders. Although with the FFA we could still lose that!
And it will be a great tournament, one Australia could win.
But what plonker planning this bid has chosen to sink 6 or more games of this tournament into Canberra.

PRAGUE — UEFA president Michel Platini says he's OK with the idea of shifting the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to winter from summer to avoid extreme desert temperatures. After a UEFA executive committee meeting in Prague on Friday, Platini said it would be easier to organize the World Cup in January, instead of June.

Doha, Qatar, 4 January
Australia and Japan, two of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) powerhouses, can book their places in the finals of Asian Football Cup 2011 when 18 Asian nations battle it out on Wednesday in the penultimate round of the tournament's five qualifying groups.
Hosts Qatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Korea Republic, India, Uzbekistan and Syria have already qualified for the 16-nation competition but at least another four nations can join them in Doha next January.

The Asian Football Confederation have released the official fixtures for the 2010 AFC Cup. Thai Port are in Group H alongside Woofoo Tai Po (HK), and Geylang United (Sin). There is still one place left open in the group, that will be filled by either Sriwijaya (Indo), or SHB Da Nang (Vie) depending on which teams lose in the Asian Champions League qualifying stage.

The Asian Football Confederation appears to be still looking for a challenger to Australia's application to host the 2015 Asian Cup; the continent's major sporting tournament. Australia was the only country to put in an intensive bid to host before AFC's original March 2008 deadline and an AFC delegation carried out a formal inspection of the country's prospective stadiums and facilities in

By AVI CREDITOR

Landon Donovan has won over everyone from Everton's manager to teammates to the UK media since his loan spell in England began early last month.

Now he has won over Everton's fans as well.

Donovan was named Everton's Player of the Month, an award voted on by the Toffees' supporters.

Thai Port have asked for help from the Thai Football Association & Asian Football Confederation to move next week's AFC Cup Group H match against Tai Po from Surakul Stadium in Phuket, to a Stadium in Chonburi. Sasom Pobraserd said the request has been made for financial reasons.
The game has already been moved once.

These days, when we singled out any player who can't perform on the field when he supposed to, we would labelled him for being "unprofessional" or "not being professional enough to do his job".
However back in the old days, the term "professional" was a DIRTY word.
Simply because players in those days were strictly amateur (as featured in the movie "Kallang Roar") and any form of engagement that comes with monetary reward was strictly prohibited.

PRAJWAL OLI

SOURCE: REPUBLICA

KATHMANDU, May 18: Despite the first round exit of his team from the AFC President´s Cup qualifiers, New Road Team (NRT) coach Diken Suwal is satisfied with his side´s performance in the tournament, held from May 12-16 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

2009 FA Cup winners Thai Port and 2009 Thai Premier League winners Muangthong United will not be drawn against each other in the AFC Cup quarter finals. The Asian Football Confederation has clarified the situation before the draw, which takes place in Kuala Lumpur on the 25th May and have stated that teams from the same country cannot play each other at this stage.

Doha, Qatar, 01 June - Asia's governing football body, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have enthusiastically endorsed the arrangements in place for Qatar's biggest sporting event next year, the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011™.
Senior officials from the AFC's headquarters in Kuala Lumpur are in Qatar to look at the preparations and planning for Asia's premier football tournament which brings together the continent's 16 top teams from 7-29 January next year.

Accra, June 6, GNA - FIFA's Referee Committee on Saturday assigned Ravshan Irmatov from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) as referee for the opening match between South Africa and Mexico at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South AfricaT to be held in ...

Accra, June 6, GNA - FIFA's Referee Committee on Saturday assigned Ravshan Irmatov from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) as referee for the opening match between South Africa and Mexico at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South AfricaT to be held in Johannesburg Soccer City at 16:00.

A MIXED BAG SO FAR - South Korea v Greece 2-0, Japan v Cameroon 1-0, Germany v Australia 4-0, Brazil v North Korea 2-1, Argentina v South Korea 4-1 - but still the best to start by the Asian group at any FIFA World Cup. FIFA itself notes the improvement and considers the numbers of Asian Football Confederation footballers playing in European competitions another indicator: "Of the 736 players

In England at least, the 1966 World Cup finals have been mythologised. To an extent, they have started to become the footballing equivalent of Arthurian legend a set of values of Englishness that we either subscribe to or not. This is a shame, because the 1966 World Cup was a fascinating tournament and some of the most notable stories have slipped under the collective radar because of the suffocating over-presence of that "Russian" linesman, Argentinians chasing the referee around the pitch and all the other micro-stories that make up the occasionally muddied and contradictory narrative of England's eventual win in that tournament.

A MIXED BAG SO FAR - South Korea v Greece 2-0, Japan v Cameroon 1-0, Germany v Australia 4-0, Brazil v North Korea 2-1, Argentina v South Korea 4-1 - but still the best to start by the Asian group at any FIFA World Cup. FIFA itself notes the improvement and considers the numbers of Asian Football Confederation footballers playing in European competitions another indicator: "Of the 736 players

Following up on a previous story, FIFA released the names of the competitions that will be using additional assistant referees today. Here's the list:

Asian Football Confederation (AFC): AFC President's Cup 2010 (24-26 September)
Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF): Campeonato Baiano de Futebol Feminino 2010 (Sept-Dec 2010), Campeonato Carioca de 2011
Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación (FMF): Torneo Clausura 2011, Torneo Apertura 2011 and Torneo Clausura 2012
Fédération Française de Football (FFF): Coupe de la Ligue 2010/2011 (League Cup)
Union des associations européennes de football (UEFA): UEFA Champions League 2010/2011 and 2011/2012, UEFA Europa League 2010/2011 and 2011/2012, and UEFA Super Cup 2010 and 2011.

John Duerden has been described by BBC Radio as 'the voice of Asian football'. He has spent the past decade living in Asia, and now brings WWOS.com.au readers an inside view from the continent. Have your say on Asian ...

Football teams wishing to be taken seriously at a World Cup should probably avoid losing all of their group games, especially if they concede twelve goals and score just one in doing so. Registering a striker as a goalkeeper in a futile bid to bend the tournament's squad regulations is also frowned upon, as is hiring a group of Chinese actors to impersonate genuine supporters.

AFC president Mohamed bin Hammam has vowed to keep pushing Asian football into a new era of professionalism and is confident a business mentally is slowly being adopted. The Qatari is working to make regional clubs commercially viable to ensure the future of football in Asia, and believes he is succeeding.

The USMNT's journey to the 20th edition of the World Cup ironically begins with a friendly with the host nation for 2014, Brazil, on August 10th at New Meadowlands Stadium. Following that will be another friendly on October 9th, against Poland.

These two matches (and any more that are announced for the rest of 2010) are not terribly important and will probably be used to get some of the younger players some action to see how they work with the veterans.

SOURCE: REPUBLICA

KATHMANDU, Aug 23: FIFA, the governing body of world football, has agreed to provide financial support to upgrade the infrastructure of All Nepal Football Association (ANFA).
FIFA will provide $408,000 to the ANFA for upgrading ANFA House at ANFA Complex under FIFA Goal Project-II.

The Israeli supporters' trust movement (yes, there is such a thing!) is part of a growing network promoting sustainable clubs through community and fan ownership across Europe. As many will know, Supporters Direct the body responsible for growing much of this network began a decade ago in Britain.

Despite being spurned by the 18 teams in the Indonesia Super League, the people behind the Premier League remain undaunted. They have announced the League will start on 17 October but they are reluctant to reveal how many teams have signed up so far.
Persitara have been vocal in their desire to join as have PSMS, Persiraja and Persebaya.

The Football Association of Singapore's much trumpeted Strategic Plan has taken another kicking with news that the city state would rather keep foreign teams in its 12 team SLeague than enter the Asian Football Confederation's Champions League.
The already uncompetitive league, where 25% of the teams, three foreign and Young Lions, would get no tangible reward, Asian club football, were they to win the league prefers to keep inviting the likes of Beijing Guoan and Albirex Niigata reasoning that different styles of football keeps things interesting.

Ghasem Hadadifar (left) scored the winning goal for Iranian side Zob Ahan

Asian club competition has reached a crucial point of the season with both of the Asian Football Confederation's flagship tournaments in the semi-final stages. There have been goals galore in the AFC Champions League whilst the AFC Cup has seen two more tense affairs amongst the final four.

Asian Football Confederation inspectors are currently in Thailand to evaluate all Thai Premier League clubs, in order to assess whether they fulfill the criteria for future participation in the AFC Champions League & AFC Cup. Today, it was Thai Port's turn to come under scrutiny. Speaking after the inspection, Vice President Jetsada Na Phattalung said that the inspectors were generally satisfied by what they saw, but were critical of the lack of segregation between home and away fans inside and around PAT Stadium.

SOURCE: REPUBLICA

KATHMANDU, Oct 11: Nepal have placed bid to host the group stage of the AFC Challenge Cup 2012. The group stage will be held in 2011. Nepal had also hosted the group stage of the previous edition of the tournament.
"We have already informed the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) that Nepal would participate in the event and bid to host the group stage," ANFA President Ganesh Thapa, who is also the president of the Challenge Cup organizing committee, said.

SOURCE: REPUBLICA

Picture Courtesy: AFC

KATHMANDU, Oct 20: Nepal is drawn against defending champion DPR Korea and Sri Lanka for the AFC Challenge Cup 2012 in the group-D. Winners of the play-off match between Bhutan and Afghanistan will join the group-D.

Great initiative from the FFA:
There's a few I'd like to...well shall we say not thank....but great initiative and I'll be waiting by my phone and facebook page all day.
Suspense could be worse than Valentines Day
On Saturday 30th October 2010 Football Federation Australia (FFA) will celebrate the Asian Football Confederation's "Asian Coaches Day" by encouraging all current and former football players around Australia to get in contact with a current or former coach who has had a positive influence on their football development, whether by phone, text, email, facebook, twitter or in person, to thank them for their support
"Asian Coaches Day" will be observed throughout the region as the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) celebrates 2010 as "Asian Coaches Year".

he 2011 AFC Asian Cup will have not one but five mascots. The organising committee for the January tournament unveiled the family of mascots at Doha's Aspire Park in a celebration complete with acrobats, a laser show and fireworks.

GENEVA, Switzerland — Mohamed Bin Hammam has accused a Spanish newspaper of fabricating an interview with him as part of a "hidden war" against Qatar's bid to host the 2022 World Cup. Bin Hammam said he'd never heard of sports daily Marca, which reported him saying that Qatar and 2018 candidate Spain-Portugal would support each [.

After digesting all the stories of what happened with England and the USA's bids for their respective World Cups, it was time to bring out my opinion on what the hell happened on Thursday, December 2. I had a bad feeling that the FIFA executive committee failed football fans around the world and us here in the United States.

Dangers to fans and players have prompted the Asian Football Confederation to urge FIFA to reschedule the 2022 World Cup to January or February in order to avoid the scorching 40 degree summer heat in Qatar.
AFC General Secretary Peter Velappan also believes European countries may boycott in protest at the dangerously hot temperatures and that the proposed air-conditioned stadiums are not enough.