JEDDAH, 27 June 2005 — The Arab Football Federation approved during their executive committee meeting Saturday the strategy plan of AFF President Prince Sultan ibn Fahd.
AFF Deputy President Prince Nawaf ibn Faisal chaired the meeting in behalf of Prince Sultan, who is also the president of Saudi Football Federation. The meeting was held at Conference Palace here.
The new four-year development plan aims at further improving the standard of Arab football.
The committee also approved the changes to be made in the 2005-2006 season of the 3rd Arab Champions League. Among the changes made were the reduction in the number of matches from 69 to 26 and cancellation of the third and fourth position match. Furthermore, they agreed to cut by 11 percent the prize money pot to be given out to the participating teams. Also, a player will be banned if he gets more than three warnings during one game. However, if any player gets one or two warning cards during the match, the cards will be cancelled if his team reaches the quarterfinal.
The committee also agreed to impose a fine on the team to have three of their players red carded in one match. At the same time, the committee will also handle the awards given to the best player, best referee and best media coverage.
Meantime, Al-Hilal of Riyadh moved a match away from securing the third place in the ACL after defeating Ahli of Jeddah 3-1 at King Fahd International stadium in Riyadh. A prize money of SR2.5 million and SR1.5 million will be given to the third- and fourth-placed teams respectively.
The return leg of the third place series will be played in Jeddah next Thursday.
