lol at the guy at the end that's shooting the ball in the net. That's what I call spontaneous pitch invasion. Usually these things take a few mins, but that was quick. Pre planned hooliganism?
Tajikistan allowed to transfer to the AFC Cup 2013 champion of Tajikistan - Ravshan will fight in the AFC Cup in 2013 with the group stage, and the Republic Cup winner - Regar TadAZ - with play-off round. With the transition to the AFC Сup teams from Tajikistan will no longer participate in the AFC President's Cup.
Atleast there is some positive news with lower tier nations. Good to see Tajikistan clubs dominating the Presidents Cup finally got there 'promotion'
I've been waiting for news like this for years now. Hopefully their will be a big push to unify the Presdients Cup and AFC Cup in the next few years. The AFC Presidents Cup do have strong representation from some nations that need pushing to the next level and of course some poor nations like Bhutan/Mongolia for example, but I can't see why they couldn't play playoffs like the ACL has. Of course, 2013 edition would make way for Northern Mariana Islands to compete in a 12 team competition. We just need these nations now to be represented on the continental stage: Brunei, Timor-Leste, Philippines, Guam, Laos, Macau, North Korea and Afghanistan. And I think for some of these nations, it won't be long.
I think the Philippines could well after 1-2 years to participate in the President's Cup. North Korea does not believe that will be used to participate in the continental. Theirs national championship so shrouded in mystery at all. A team will travel to the tournament so players will scatter to someone as do players from Eritrea. Into teams of Laos too, would have been interesting to see. I think in the nearest 5 years, they will also participate.
I agree druryfire- This is the sort of news required to know that the AFC is also focusing on the smaller nations in order to push them for higher football. Of the clubs in the AFC Presidents Cup, I would say easily clubs from Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Philippines and North Korea could easily give a good test to AFC Cup teams
And the badside, AFC have not announced it yet. I always get nervous when these reports come out from everyone but AFC. You'd think the AFC would want to promote their football, but they try their best not to. It's like they are shy of these nations that don't fit into the top tier.
With recent announcements from the AFC with the Challenge Cup, Champions League etc, my faith in the AFC has gone to be honest. With some ridiculous rules, its like 'football' is last on their priority
Tajikistan squad for FIFA World Cup qualifiers. http://fft.tj/muhammadiev-vyzval-26-igrokov-na-podgotovku-k-matcham-protiv-iordanii-i-bangladesh/
With the country not yet affected by the Covid-19 outbreak, the Tajik Super Cup was live this week with record ratings (well, 11,000 viewers, wouldn't have been enough to fill the stadium). FC Istiklol Dushanbe vs FC Khujand | MyCujoo, 5 Apr 2020 https://mycujoo.tv/en/view/event/95450 "Professional soccer is only continuing in a few countries around the world, with Belarus, Nicaragua and Burundi among the holdouts, attracting interest from foreign fans and international gambling markets." https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports...ikistans-super-cup-one-worlds-active-leagues/ The 2020 TFF league season kicked off on the same day. FC Istiklol (in red) in action in 2019 - (Tengelbes, cc-by-sa)
Imagine if someone told you that, by April 2020 the most watched leagues in the world will be the Tajik, Belorussian and Nicaraguan leagues. So I did a little research on the Tajik Higher League (I'm under lockdown, no judging) and was glad I did, because things got a bit weird. Since 2010, Istiklol (which literally means Independence), have won the title all but once. They are founded by a bloke named Rustam Emomali, son of the strongman dictator of their country who has been leading them since gaining independence from the Soviet Union. Rustam founded FC Istiklol in 2007 and (unsurprisingly) captained the side and played as their striker. It is unclear as to how good he really was, but I couldn't find any individual accomplishments on any of their record books. He's now the president of the Tajikistan Football Federation, mayor of their capital Dushanbe and is also a member of their parliament. Busy guy. Using their connections, Istiklol have signed pretty much the entire starting XI of the Tajikistan national team. In a country where dissent is violently suppressed and all media are strictly controlled, incidents of violence occasionally spring up during their football matches, particularly those involving Istiklol. For the Tajiks, football is a rare platform for them to vent their emotions. Fans of other clubs often accuse officials of favoring Istiklol and apparently they have a special referee assigned to exclusively officiate all their matches. Here's a bizarre article about one such incident.
Lot of fans of Lokey Pamir and ol' FCD all of a sudden I was fake-supporting them before it was cool FC Lokomotiv-Pamir vs FC Dushanbe-83 - mycujoo.tv/en/view/event/95491 Tajikistan Football League 2020 | 11 Apr 2020
This week's game did get enough viewers to fill the stadium (33,000), it's impressive FC Istiklol vs FC Kuktosh Tajikistan Football League | 26 Apr 2020 https://mycujoo.tv/en/view/event/95597 These people might actually be professional fake fans! Bravo