I am so happy and honored to be elected as the EAFF President, taking over the position of Mr. Xie Yalong from China PR.
During the next two years of my presidency, I will particularly commit myself to the two principal EAFF objectives. One, promoting the friendship and cooperation among the Member Associations of EAFF. And two, through the improvement of the football standard in the East Asian region, encouraging the football development in Asia as a whole.
In 2010, the next round of East Asian Football Championship & EAFF Women’s Football Championship will be held in Japan. By elaborate preparation, we will make it a big success. In the men’s championship, the preliminary competition will be a great opportunity for the Member Associations to level-up, and the final competition to build-up for the FIFA World Cup 2010 South Africa. In the women’s championship, since most of the top Asian teams belong to EAFF, you will see high-level games for sure. The teams will learn by each other and it must lead further improvement in the Asian football.
In addition to these, I would like to establish a new championship; EAFF Futsal Championship. It will be a preliminary part of AFC Futsal Championship and definitely become a big help for futsal development in East Asia.
As an organisation, EAFF will increase exchanges with Asean Football Federation. They will hold AFF U-19 Youth Championship 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand next month. From EAFF, China PR and Korea Republic have been invited to it as the start of the exchanges. I hope and will work to expand it in a variety of categories.
Within EAFF, in order to help the Member Associations to go for further development, we will enrich various kinds of programmes, including financial ones. Also, with support from the Members, we will make Northern Mariana Islands FA an associate member of AFC.
There are so many things I would like to achieve for the next couple of years. I believe all of them could be achieved with the strong solidarity and warm friendship EAFF has been developing and sharing since its establishment in 2002 under the enlightened leadership of Mr. Shun-ichiro Okano, Dr. Chung Mong Joon and Mr. Xie Yalong. With the continued support from the Member Associations and other parties concerned to EAFF and their active participation in its activities, I will do my utmost to live for further progress of EAFF.
Junji Ogura