Representatives of FIFA’s six (6) Central Asian and five (5) South Asian Members Associations (MA) gathered in Dubai last week for a workshop to launch the new FIFA Forward 3.0, the latest in a global series.

ANFA's general secretary, Kiran Rai & senior FA officer Basanta Rijal took part in the event.

FIFA Forward allows FIFA to redistribute income to all its association for the development of football, with the third and latest iteration, FIFA Forward 3.0, launched at the start of this year. The programme has provided support for FIFA’s 211 MAs since 2016.

Two successful iterations of the programme have been completed since its inception with over 2.8 billion USD committed to a diverse array of plans and projects. This current cycle, which ends in 2026, sees a greatly increased level of funding with investment increased by almost 30 per cent with a significant element of the investment to support FIFA’s goal of having 60 million female players participating in football worldwide.

In Dubai, as well as the focus on FIFA Forward 3.0, the workshop also touched on several important topics including women’s football and global football development programmes. Additionally, MAs did deep dives on other administrative topics such as financial governance, compliance, good governance principles, and there were also discussions on FIFA Football for Schools and FIFA Digital Skills.