JAKARTA - FIFA president Gianni Infantino has revealed plans to include the AFF Cup in their calendar. That's because Infantino saw the huge potential of the tournament between Southeast Asian countries.
Quoted from Zing News, the discourse emerged from Infantino because this event has a supporting capital of hundreds of millions of people. It makes the AFF Cup a big football event.
The AFF Cup must be upgraded to a FIFA day tournament. We have to make sure that this league is growing. I'm sure if we work together, the AFF Cup will get bigger with FIFA approval," Infantino said as quoted by Zing News, Wednesday, January 18.
"This tournament is considered an important event for this region (Southeast Asia). With a population of more than 650 million people, people in this region all really like football," he continued.
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Since taking place in 1996, the AFF Cup has yet to be included in the FIFA calendar. This is one of the reasons that not all clubs can release players from Southeast Asia.
Even Indonesia has difficulty calling players who are abroad several times. Clubs are reluctant to release their players because seeing the AFF Cup is not the official FIFA agenda.
At the 2022 AFF Cup, the Garuda Squad had to compete without Sandy Walsh playing at KV Mechelen due to permission from the club.
Infantino himself hopes that the AFF Cup will enter the FIFA calendar also because it wants to see Southeast Asian countries appear in the 2026 World Cup.
"I hope at least one team in Southeast Asia can participate in the 2026 World Cup. Because Asia's slot for the World Cup has increased to 8.5. You certainly have a chance," said Infantino.
Infantino's statement was made after attending the second leg of the 2022 AFF Cup final. He also gave the trophy to the Thai national team which came out as winners.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
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