KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 — The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) are restructuring their budget for the 2021 season now that the Covid-19 pandemic has played havoc with their tournament schedule.

AFC Finance Committee deputy chairman Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin said the panel yesterday held a virtual meeting, chaired by committee chairperson Mariano V. Araneta Jr, and unanimously agreed to restructure the confederation’s budget.

“Following the impact caused by Covid-19, most tournaments (for 2020) have been postponed to 2021, thus leading to a higher financial saving for this year. The meeting decided that the savings will be brought forward to 2021.

“For tournaments like the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup, the Finance Committee approved an increased budget in line with the rescheduling and new preparation time involved for the remaining four months of this year and 2021,” he said in a statement today, adding that the budget for the AFC men and women’s futsal tournaments would also be restructured.

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Hamidin, who is the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president, said the meeting also discussed the amount of subsidy to be distributed to the 12 teams who have qualified for the Asian Zone final rounds of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.

“The meeting also updated the financial performance and allocation as well as the restructuring of the budget for the whole year to face the impact of Covid-19.

“The pandemic, however, has not affected the budget for each of the tournament scheduled for this year, although they have all been postponed to March next year,” he said. — Bernama

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