AFC and UEFA united in pushing women’s football forward
Friday, July 25, 2025
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Building on a successful first year of a joint women’s football programme, a visit to UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 underlined the growing collaboration between the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and UEFA, and our shared commitment to accelerating the global development of the game.
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Launched in 2024 under UEFA Together, the three-year AFC-UEFA Women’s Football Programme is helping facilitate and support the development of the women’s game in five AFC national football associations: the Chinese Taipei Football Association, Lebanese Football Association, Football Association of Thailand, Uzbekistan Football Association and the Vietnam Football Federation.
Representatives from each association took part in a week of workshops in Switzerland, covering multiple aspects of women’s football development from the grassroots to national teams, a visit to local club Servette FC Chênois Féminin, and trips to watch UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 matches in Geneva and Sion.
"This project is a fantastic example of how working together, sharing knowledge and learning from each other can have a huge impact on the development of women's football. Congratulations to the AFC member associations for all their hard work."
The visit not only reinforced a shared vision of a sustainable, inclusive future for women’s football worldwide, but offered an opportunity to reflect and build on a successful first 12 months of the programme, to which knowledge-sharing is fundamental.
It has involved online and in-person sessions exchange programmes and visits from UEFA experts, while each association has also received funding to support their strategic development objectives for women’s and girls’ football.
Continental collaboration
The opening year of the programme has focused on helping the associations develop their first-ever national women’s football strategies, all five of which have now been launched. Future focus areas include implementing minimum standards for national teams – based on UEFA’s framework – club and league development, and grassroots initiatives.
Earlier this year, Football Association of Thailand (FA Thailand) delegates – including their women’s national team head coach – spent five days in Belfast on a knowledge-exchange programme with the Irish Football Association, while the Chinese Taipei Football Association visited the Football Association of Wales to share best practice on marketing, growing participation and implementing club licensing systems.
"This collaboration between UEFA and AFC is key to the success of our participating member associations as they strive to take women’s football to the next level within their countries. We are delighted with the progress achieved so far and look forward to building on the achievements in the years ahead."
The opportunities to exchange knowledge have proved valuable for FA Thailand. "This collaboration has been instrumental in shaping Thailand’s women’s football strategy and has opened doors to valuable partnerships," said Waraporn Szanyi-Nagy, head of women’s football development.
"We have gained a clearer vision and strategic direction for the long-term growth of women’s football in our country. Moving forward, we are prepared to implement several initiatives inspired by this experience," she added.
Looking to that long-term growth, FA Thailand has started a new talent identification initiative and set a target of FIFA Women’s World Cup qualification.
A year of firsts
Since launching their strategy, the Vietnam Football Federation has already delivered the country’s first C licence course for coaches working across the women’s game and has set out a pathway for strengthening domestic competition structures.
A dynamic year for the Uzbekistan Football Association included the launch of a new Under-12 and Under-15 girls football school at their headquarters – the basis of a fully-fledged academy – and the appointment of Kotryna Kulbytė as their new women’s national team head coach, a member of the current UEFA coach mentor programme cohort. Remaining UEFA funding is set aside for safeguarding, coach education and fitness instructor initiatives, underlining an ambition to elevate standards on and off the pitch.
The Lebanese Football Association has used UEFA funding to help their women’s team prepare for Asian Cup qualifiers, and is planning to implement a pioneering performance and wellbeing management platform for their national team players.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Taipei Football Association has focused on growing the appeal of the game for girls and the brand positioning of women's football through a new video campaign, #RiseTogether.
Adding another string to the bow of the AFC-UEFA partnership, Lebanon and Thailand's women’s Under-18 teams took part in the UEFA Friendship Cup – a key component of the UEFA Together programme – in Türkiye in April, gaining valuable exposure to international tournament football.