Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President Shaikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa has hailed Thursday’s official launch of the AFC Solidarity Cup.

Commenting on the competition which will begin on November 2, 2016, Shaikh Salman said: "It is my pleasure to introduce you to the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) new national team competition, the AFC Solidarity Cup. "As the name suggests, the competition brings together a group of our aspiring Member Associations in a single event. This is a unique competition where the focus is on development which, through mutual support and solidarity, will take Asian football to a new level. As individual teams improve and the level of competition gets tougher, the opposition is stronger and all competing teams benefit. 

"The AFC Solidarity Cup will give teams the opportunity to play competitive international matches when they are not participating in other FIFA or AFC national team competitions. The first edition will take place in November in Malaysia.

"What makes the AFC Solidarity Cup so special is the educational elements it offers to the participants. These include training and information-sharing in areas such as coaching, referees and technical analysis. Also event management training will be offered to MAs who hold aspirations to host international tournaments in the future.

"The AFC Solidarity Cup is an exciting opportunity of developing national team football in Asia. The AFC is united behind this new concept - the AFC Solidarity Cup - as we look to deliver the objective of our Vision and Mission which is to make Asian teams stronger on the global stage. "I wish all the teams a successful, educational and inspirational AFC Solidarity Cup 2016", he added. 

Source : QNA