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. "We are changing the mentally and culture of our football," he said in Singapore, where he was meeting FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
"We have always played amateur football and with amateur football there is no discipline or regulations. But we are now introducing commercialism of football. "People resisted at first but countries must accept these changes because this is modern football." The Asian Football Confederation chief has long called for clubs and leagues in the region to be managed more professionally, pointing to the success of England's Premier League as a shining example.
There, teams like Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal have been transformed into successful businesses that turn multi-million dollar profits annually, cashing in on lucrative TV rights, merchandising and ticket sales. In an effort to encourage more professionalism in Asia, the AFC's flagship club competition, the Champions League, was revamped with stricter criteria for participation. This included meeting certain standards regarding team affairs, attendances, marketing, stadiums, and media arrangements.
"Modern football is about entertaining people, you are not just looking for a win," added Bin Hammam, whose reputation as a moderniser has seen him mentioned as a potential successor to FIFA president Sepp Blatter. "You need to give people something they want to watch.
"Secondly, we need to improve the business. We can't accept empty stadiums. "At the moment not all our administrators are business-oriented people, so this is something that needs to be changed. But we are going in the right direction." Blatter, meanwhile, hailed Bin Hammam for changing the face of Asian football, pointing to the progress of Asian teams at the World Cup in South Africa.
"I would like to congratulate the Asian teams and the Asian referees' performances in South Africa. They were outstanding," he said. Both Japan and South Korea reached the second round for the first time outside their home soil. Japan lost on penalties to Paraguay and the Koreans were knocked out after extra-time to eventual semi-finalists Uruguay.
Blatter also gave his seal of approval to AFC's motto "The Future is Asia". "Something has changed, positively, since Mohamed (bin Hammam) took over AFC," said Blatter. "AFC is the biggest football confederation in the world, not just in terms of population but also in the football aspect and economically. "In terms of administration and organisation, AFC is really professional. From Vision Asia, the AFC Champions League to the development of referees, AFC are doing very well. "What AFC needs to do is to maintain, and fully establish its enormous potential, and this goes to the Member Associations as well."
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