TOKYO, Dec 15: Asia is leading the way in promoting the women’s game in the “macho” world of football with many taking up senior positions in the sport, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Saturday.

He lauded the Asian Football Confederation for being the first nation to elect four women to its executive committee.

“This is a remarkable achievement for a confederation that had some problems at the beginning in the development of women’s football and now they are the forerunners,” Blatter said. “I congratulate them.”

The AFC elected one woman as its vice president and three others as members of the executive committee.

Blatter said the FIFA executive committee, which held a meeting here Saturday on the sidelines of the Club World Cup, had decided to increase the money it allocated to women’s football.

FIFA allocates 250,000 dollars to each national association and 2.5 million dollars to continental confederations every year.

The committee has decided to increase from 10 per cent to 15 per cent the ratio of money spent by national associations for promoting women’s football out of subsidies, Blatter said.

—AFP