Jinjiang, China- from 24th to 25th August 2018, an inspection visit was made for 2018 AUSF Football Cup by the AUSF Assessor Ayub Hanafiah who is also the Chairman of AUSF Technical Committee, AUSF Assessor Hisato Igarashi, Technical Delegate Goutam Kar designated by Asian Football Confederation and AUSF General Coordinator Laura Yan. Mr. Xue Yanqing, AUSF President and President of Federation of University Sports of China, also made a special trip to Jinjiang welcomed the inspection group and encouraged the Jinjiang city to take good advantage of the inspection, learning from the inspection group and following their instruction.
On 24th Aug., the inspection group checked the facilities and equipment of 6 competition venues and 2 out of 7 training venues. Out of 6 competition venues, 4 are located in the middle schools and colleges, which will feast the students high-level football matches and facilitate the communication and interaction between local students and foreign teams. As Mr. Kar said, “the middle school facilities are good, and the college conditions are excellent. Some venues need to make some small changes and I pointed them out. All the people are working very hard, preparing to welcome the tournament.”
The on-site inspection was accompanied by the Vice Mayor of Jinjiang and the Vice President of Local Organizing Committee (LOC) WANG Haifei , and heads of relevant departments.
In the evening, the inspection group was invited to attend the Awarding Ceremony for 2018 AUSF Football Cup China Qualifying Tournament which was the test event of 2018 AUSF Football Cup. Finally, the men’s team of Beijing Institute of Technology and women’s teams from Beijing Normal University and Donghua University won their tickets to 2018 AUSF Football Cup.
On 25th Aug., the inspection group had a meeting with the LOC. The meeting was chaired by Vice Mayor HUANG Shaowei, attended by heads of 9 departments of the LOC. Mr. HUANG briefed the preparation in the past few months in terms of venue construction which cost around USD23 million, setup of the LOC, launching of Logo, etc. He also emphasized on the working plan in the next 2 months. After the debriefing report, the inspection team pointed out the problems found and gave respectively practical suggestions on equipment addition, security issues, medical services, accommodation and supply of halal food, volunteering support, and financing & marketing etc. After that, they also took many questions from LOC department leaders, and exchanged with LOC members their own knowledge and experiences.
After the lunch time, the AUSF team can’t wait to convene a meeting to finalize the pressing question of competition regulation and schedule raised in the morning meeting. Thanks to the efforts and efficient work of all AUSF experts, the first draft has been worked out, which will be released and sent to the teams soon.
As Vice Mayor Huang mentioned the enthusiasm of local residents, the valuable organizing experiences as well as practical advice from experts gave him and LOC much confidence that Jinjiang would be ready to welcome all the participating teams home and abroad.
1. Competition Venues
Quanzhou Institute of Technology
Quanzhou College of Technology
Yangzheng Middle School
Jiyan Middle School
Economic Development Zone
Jinjiang Sports Center
2. Training Venues
Zihua Middle School
Songxi Middle School
Huaqiao Vocational School
Jinjiang No. 1 Middle School
Jianjiang No. 2 Middle School
Yuanhua Middle School
(Source: Organizing Committee of AUSF Football Cup)