Inside AFC Annual Awards Ceremony

Yes, this was the table for media. We were lucky to be able to attend this ceremony with Rene from Eito Arena, along with many other media representatives from around the world. Although the absence of Honda, Kagawa, Homare Sawa and so on is a big disappointment for us, we are happy to be able to witness this event.

As our photographer Sharon was not feeling well, and media tables were at the last row, we are not able to provide close-up photos.

The ceremony started at 8pm in Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. FIFA President Sepp Blatter, Vice President Prince Ali al Hussein, AFC Acting President Zhang Jilong and many other AFC member association’s representatives were guests of the event, including Timothy Fok Tsun Ting from Hong Kong.


This is the rundown of the dinner programme and the order of awards presentation. Japan had an amazing year both in men and women football and won 9 awards that night. They could have won more if Honda or Kagawa were able to attend the ceremony.

The awards presentation was separated into two parts as shown in the dinner programme and there were some performances in between, people singing, dancing in different costumes to show the harmony of Asian countries. But the most impressive performance I will vote for the sand art. This lady used just sand and her hands to draw more than 5 different picture in a very short period of time, below are two of them:

Anyways, here is the list of award winners:

AFC Diamond of Asia: His Majesty Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah
The award was presented to HM Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah (Malaysia), by AFC Acting president Zhang Jilong. FIFA president and Vice president were both on the stage to show respect to the winner as this is the most prestigious AFC award to individual who had contributed to the development and promotion of Asian Football. 



AFC Player of the Year: Server Djeparov (Uzbekistan) 
As there were only two nominees remains, Server Djeparov won this award for a second times as he played an inspirational role in bringing Uzbekistan to Asian Cup semi-finals which is the best finish of the country so far.



AFC Women Player of the Year: Aya Miyama (Japan)
As Homare Sawa was absence in the event, this award became a race between Japanese goalkeeper Ayumi Kaihori and striker Aya Miyama.

Aya Miyama scored the first goal in World Cup final to help Japan got back into the game after one nil down to USA and later scored the first penalty in penalty shootout.

AFC Youth Player of the Year (Men): Hideki Ishige (Japan)
AFC Youth Player of the Year (Women): Caitlin Foord (Australia)
AFC National Team of the Year (Men): Japan
AFC National Team of the Year (Women): Japan
AFC Club of the Year: Al Sadd (Qatar)
AFC Referee of the Year (Men): Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan)
AFC Referee of the Year (Women): Sachiko Yamagishi (Japan)
AFC Assistant Referee of the Year (Men): Abdukhamidullo Rasulov (Uzbekistan)
AFC Assistant Referee of the Year (Women): Sarah Ho (Australia)
AFC Coach of the Year (Men): Norio Sasaki (Japan)
AFC Coach of the Year (Women): Tezuka Takako (Japan)
AFC Futsal Player of the Year: Mohammad Keshavarz (Iran)
AFC Futsal Team of the Year: Nagoya Oceans (Japan)
AFC Fair Play Association of the Year: Korea Republic
AFC Member Association of the Year: Japan

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Photo credits: Rene Chong/AFC