“Sri Lankan football is honoured with the presence of so many distinguished visitors and we know that their presence will give local football a much needed ‘lift’, serving as an encouragement to both young and old footballers island wide”, said FFSL President Ranjith Rodrigo.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) which is the governing body of association football in Asia has 47 member countries, mostly located on the Asian continent. All the transcontinental countries with territory in both Europe and Asia are members of UEFA (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkey).
Israel is also a UEFA member even though it lies entirely in Asia, as is arguably also the case for Cyprus. On the other hand, Australia, formerly in the OFC, has been in the AFC since 2006, and the Oceanian island of Guam, a territory of the United States, is also a member of AFC.
One of FIFA's six continental confederations, the AFC was formed officially on 8 May 1954 in Manila, Philippines, on the sidelines of the second Asian Games.
The 12 founder members were Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Vietnam.
The main headquarters of the AFC are located in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The AFC runs the Asian Cup, a competition for the national football teams of Asia held every four years, as well as the Asian World Cup Qualifying Tournament and the AFC Challenge Cup.
It also runs the Asian Olympics qualifying tournament. The AFC also runs three levels of annual international club competitions.
The most prestigious (and oldest of the current AFC club competitions) is the AFC Champions League tournament, based on the UEFA Champions League, formed in 2002/03 with the amalgamation of the Asian Champions Cup and the Asian Cup Winners Cup. (An Asian Super Cup competition between the winners of these two major tournaments ended with the birth of the AFC Champions League.)
Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa has been the President of the Asian Football Confederation since 2 May 2013.
Before his election as the president of AFC, he was president of Bahrain Football Association and also Chairman of the Asian Football Confederation Disciplinary Committee, and Deputy Chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee.
A member of the Bahrain Royal Family. He graduated from the University of Bahrain in 1992 with a Bachelors Degree in English Literature and History.
Shaikh Salman has been involved in football for many years dating back to the 1980s when he played in the youth team of the Bahrain Division I team, Riffa Club.
Since leaving Riffa Club to focus on his academic studies, Shaikh Salman has held executive positions at the BFA.
In 1996 he was appointed Chairman of the National Team, elected Vice President two years later and eventually became the Football Association’s president in 2002.
He has also served as the Co-Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee at several FIFA Tournaments such as, the FIFA World Cups, FIFA Beach Tournaments, FIFA Club Championships, etc. He was also Deputy Chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee at Beijing in 2008.
