The Football Association of Thailand (FA Thailand) have been endorsed as a full member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Elite Youth Scheme for its continuous efforts in youth development.

With the aim of becoming one of the leading countries in Southeast Asia to develop youth players, FA Thailand introduced the Quality Training Project to support academies by providing the best education for players between the ages of 13 to 18.

The programme covers a wide range of areas including development guidelines for both men's and women's football, development processes for national teams, academy licensing system, technical resources for clubs and competition organization.

In addition, Thailand FA collaborated with BG Pathum United FC as a model Academy and achieved fulfilling the 20 criteria that the AFC’s Elite Youth Scheme requires to be approved as an Elite one-star academy.

The Football Association of Thailand (FA Thailand) Technical Director, Carles Romagosa, said: “The FA Thailand is committed to create a structured environment with modern training methods for youth teams. Youth football development is one of the key objectives for us.

“The AFC Elite Youth Scheme serves as a guide to achieve our ambitions. Using the Scheme as a reference and guide, the FA Thailand will implement in 2022 a six-level grading system for both men’s and women’s academies to raise their standards.