For the first time among the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Member Associations, the Japan Football Association (JFA) has acquired the “PRO Level Membership.”

With this certification, JFA coaches' S License, A Coach General, and B License will be acknowledged as AFC Licenses and will be allowed to utilise the AFC Coaching Convention logo under regulation.

Since 2007, JFA licenses has been compatible with those of AFC, but in September of 2017, the AFC has installed a new procedure to certify the licenses of the member associations. Following a document screening process and assessment procedure conducted by the AFC coaching panel, the JFA has been certified with the Pro Level Membership by the AFC in December 2018.

The status of the three memberships are as follow.

AFC B Level Membership:
Certified up to Member Associations B Licence

AFC A Level Membership:
Certified up to Member Associations A Licence

AFC Pro Level Membership:
Certified up to Member Associations Pro Licence (*Equivalent to JFA S Licence)

Comments

SEKIZUKA Takashi, JFA Technical Director
The acquisition of the PRO Level Membership is a result of the tireless efforts made by the Japanese football community to develop the overall level of the coaching staff of Japan in the past 50 years. I would like to use this time to thank everyone who has supported us in constructing the coach development system, and those coaches who has participated in the JFA coach development seminars. The JFA Technical Committee will continue to strive to heighten the overall level of not just the players, but the coaches, so that we can allow them to excel at the world stage.

YAMAGUCHI Takafumi, JFA Vice Technical Director
The JFA has started to take part in coach development from the advice given by Dettmar CRAMER, the father of modern football in Japan. The efforts made by everyone involved in coach development has been acknowledged and as a result, we have acquired the Pro Level Membership from the AFC. I am very happy and honoured by this achievement, but we will not sit on our laurels and continue to strive for better quality in coach development. We will study on the seminars and procedures carried out by the advanced nations so that we can be acknowledged by the UEFA in the future.