Honduras claimed first place and the U-23 title at the 2008 CONCACAF Men’s Olympic Qualification with a 1-0 win against the USA after extra time in the final held in Nashville (USA) on 23 March. Both finalists had already qualified as CONCACAF’s two representatives at the Olympic Football Tournament Beijing 2008 by winning their respective semi-final encounters. The Honduran CONCACAF U-23 tournament victory is their second, with their first one coming in 2000. This will also be Honduras’ second appearance at the Summer Games. Meanwhile, the USA, who have progressed to 13 Men’s Olympic Football Tournaments, have only finished first in one CONCACAF pre-Olympic qualifier (in 1992). In an earlier encounter, also played in Nashville, Canada took the third-place honours after defeating Guatemala 5-3 on penalties following a goalless draw.
Prior to the final on 23 March, the All-Tournament Team was selected by the CONCACAF Technical Study Group, featuring a “Best XI” along with seven honourable mentions. The player selections were made from the eight teams that reached the final round of the 2008 CONCACAF Men’s Olympic Qualification. Kevin Hernandez of Honduras was selected as the goalkeeper in the tournament’s Best XI, while the three-man backline included Carlos Castrillo of Guatemala, Honduras’ Oscar Morales and Michael Orozco of the USA. The Best Xl’s midfield was composed of Panama’s Nelson Barahona, Jose Manuel Contreras of Guatemala and USA’s Maurice Edu and Dax McCarty, while the forwards were Freddy Adu of the USA, Cuba’s Leonel Duarte and Will Johnson of Canada. The All-Tournament Team also gave honourable mentions to seven players: goalkeeper Johnny Placide (Haiti); defenders Hendry Thomas (Honduras) and Roman Torres (Panama); midfielders Sacha Kljestan (USA) and Cesar Villaluz (Mexico) and forwards Luis Angel Landfn (Mexico) and Leonel Saint-Preux (Haiti).

CAF Vice-President Molefi Oliphant led a delegation on a courtesy call to Libyan leader Muammar Al-Caddafi in Suit on 22 March. The delegation included members of the CAF Executive Committee, heads of various football associations and members of the Organising Committee of the 4Ih African Futsal Championship, hosted by Libya from 21 to 31 March. Al-Gaddafi assured the delegation of his continued support for the development of football on the continent. Libya and defending continental champions Egypt qualified as Africa’s representatives for the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2008, which will take place in Brazil from 30 September to 19 October. Libya will also host the 29th Africa Cup of Nations in 2014.
The CAF Executive Committee recently accepted a request to register ten new teams for the African Nations Championship even though the fixtures had been already released following the draw in Tunisia in February. Faced with such eagerness and as it is a new competition, the CAF Executive Committee made an exceptional decision to accept the 10 new registra¬tions and authorised the CAF secretariat to amend the fixtures accordingly. The ten new associations are: Gambia from the West Zone, Ghana and Togo from the West B Zone, Kenya and Eritrea from the Central East Zone, and from the Southern Zone Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has always set great store by the power of sport in general and professional football in particular as a tool for peace and development and as a means to mobilise political will and resources in the fight against global hunger. Against this back¬drop, on 9 March, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf welcomed the signing of a cooperation agreement between the FAO and CAF. The agreement, signed in Cairo, Egypt, by Diouf and CAF President Issa Hayatou, will focus on promoting the fight against hunger as part of World Food Day (WFD) and the FAO’s TeleFood activities.

The AFC U-14 Festival of Football was contested recently in Doha, Qatar by 11 teams from the West Asian region. Teams from Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and hosts Qatar took part in the event. The festival also featured an AFC ‘C certificate coaching course, a referees’ course and a workshop for the head coaches of all the participating teams. A workshop for head coaches was also held during the event by Secret to Sports (S2S), an online coaching tool that supports the coaching and training of youth and grassroots footballers both in terms of quality and quantity.
Football Federation Australia (FFA) chairman Frank Lowy has announced plans to expand the A-League from its current 8 to a minimum of 12 teams. “Ultimately, we believe the A-League has the capacity to be at least a 12-team competition, but our approach needs to be prudent and planned,” said Lowy. “Expansion of the Hyundai A-League is critical to the continuing evolution and growth of football. It has to be right for football, right for the existing Hyundai A-League clubs, right for the new clubs and right for the local community.” The two Queensland cities Gold Coast and Townsville have already set the wheels in motion and, assuming they meet the required criteria, may well field a team in the 2008-2009 season.
AFC’s Vision Asia delegation recently visited Thailand’s Chonburi province to assess the current status of football and to identify appropriate goals for football development. Detailed discussions with the officials from Chonburi, including officials from the Thailand League champions Chonburi Football Club, were held during the assessment visit. Vision Asia aims to develop football at all levels in the province, ranging from improving the organisational structure, reorganising competitions and developing coaches and referees to initiating structured grassroots and youth programmes. One of the initial objectives will be to establish a football association in Chonburi.