DOHA: A high ranking delegation of the Qatar 2022 Bid Committee will attend the AFC Annual Awards Night 2009 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to take part in the prestigious event today (related picture on page 31).
Three out of the five contenders for the AFC Player of the Year Award are from the Middle East: Sayed Mohamed Adnan (Bahrain), Hadi Aghily (Iran) and Firas Al Khatib (Syria). Kengo Nakamura and Yasuhito Endo from Japan are also in contention.
Qatar’s striker Sebastian Soria made the final shortlist last year, while Al Sadd and Qatar star Khalfan Ibrahim Khalfan is among recent winners of the award when he lifted the trophy as an 18-year old. “We are delighted to be a part of this prestigious night for Asian football. Asia is a key football market of the future,” Qatar 2022 Bid CEO Hassan Al Thawadi said ahead of the event.
“The increasing importance of this award confirms that Asian football has grown enormously in prestige and continues to grow on the world stage every year. If Qatar is granted the honour of hosting the World Cup in 2022, this would give a massive additional boost to football development in Asia. It would be a historic choice, the first time that the world’s favourite tournament is hosted in the Middle East – and it would provide an inspirational effect to millions of young players throughout the whole region,” Al Thawadi added.
The awards night comes in the wake of the overwhelming success of the Asian Champions League, which was reformed this year to assist in providing more professional structures in Asian football along the lines of the Vision Asia plan for continental football development.
The Pohang Steelers won the inaugural reformed competition with Qatar’s Umm Salal reaching the semi-finals in an impressive run.
“We will continue to advocate the implementation of visionary plans like Vision Asia and the reform of the AFC Champions League in order to further raise the profile of Asian football across the world,” Al Thawadi said yesterday.
“The Asian Cup in Qatar in 2011 will provide us with a further opportunity to showcase the strengths and passion of Asian football to the world,” he added.
Qatar will host the Asian Cup, the continent’s showcase competition in 2011 and aims to become the first World Cup host from the Middle East in 2022.
