Infantino opens FIFA Executive Summit in Doha

The three-day FIFA Executive Football Summit opened in Doha yesterday with the participation of a number of international football personalities including FIFA President Gianni Infantino. QFA President HE Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed al-Thani and Ahmed Ahmed, President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), joined FIFA Chief on stage yesterday.

Football representatives from Iraq, Oman, Jordan, Syria, China, Bhutan, Indonesia, Nepal, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Iran were also in attendance at Sheraton Hotel Doha. A number of important seminars and workshops were held to discuss the future of football around the world.

The most important of these were the workshops related to the future of competitions and championships. One of the key discussions centred around hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. A separate workshop on the use of video assistant referee (VAR) was also held. The VAR was successfully launched at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. It will be again used at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France.

During the day’s proceedings at the Summit, FIFA also discussed the positive impact of the European Championship on the world in general, especially as it was a tournament launched by the UEFA for the first time this season.

Apart from FIFA and Asian football workshops, the presence of 18 Asian nations at the event, nearly one third of the members of the General Assembly, was an opportunity to exchange views and talk about the AFC Presidential elections in Malaysia on April 6 and the chances of the candidates. QFA Vice President and AFC Vice President Saud al-Mohannadi is one of the candidates for the top Asian football post.