AFC Under-14 Second Tier Matches Start Today in Doha

Doha, February 24 (QNA) - The second format of matches for the West Asian youth teams under the aegis of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) under-14 Festival of Football will be played here Friday and tomorrow, Saturday. The youth teams will play each match over the regulation time of 60 minutes divided into two halves of 30 minutes each. Three substitutes will be used under this format and each team will play three matches, totaling 16 matches under this format. The total number of matches is 48 under both formats which aim to expose the budding players to different levels of difficulty in a football match. AFC Project Manager Dr. Shamil Kamil, who oversees the annual grassroots and youth football carnival, is happy with the outcome of the preliminary matches which show that Asian teams stand almost on par with each other, or in other words, boast almost equal skills and performance. "The first festival format was implemented on February 21 and 22 for the participating teams, where they played matches of 30 minutes each with no interval. Each team played six matches during the two days to accomplish a total 32 matches under the first format," Dr. Shamil told the-afc.com "The players and coaches were satisfied with the matches and with sufficient time to perform and hone their skills. The coaches were also successful in implementing their tactics of the game. The young referees had the opportunity to officiate in the football matches. "This is a very positive outcome which is reflected by the results of all matches which are very close to each other. Most matches finished with a draw with some teams having won with a small margin. Moreover, overage players are no more a problem in the West region festival," he said. The Festival, which focuses more on learning and development than competition, is held this year in Qatar for the West region from February 12 to 25, in Pakistan from April 2 to 15 for the Central region, in China from April 16 to 29 for East, in Nepal from May 10 to 25 for South and Malaysia from May 21 to June 3 for the ASEAN region. (QNA)