Abu Dhabi: The AFC Asian Cup Playmakers programme has played a significant role in ‘Bringing Asia Together’ and the highly-successful initiative added greater excitement and energy to the stands, this time with Turkmen fans uniting to rally their support behind their team during the group stages.
Jemala Yagmurova, who lives in the UAE but is originally from Turkmenistan, recruited a fan club of over 100 people to support her nation, ensuring that there was plenty of noise and encouragement for her country emanating from the stands.
She is one of the six hundred strong community group, dubbed the ‘Playmakers’, which was formed to spread awareness and excitement of the tournament across the Emirates. For months now, Jemala and her fellow Playmakers have attended events, functions, mobile roadshows, schools outreach programmes and more, in a wide scale effort to drum up support for their own countries.
Despite Turkmenistan bowing out bravely from the competition, her efforts ensured the Central Asians were inspired by a strong fan base. Looking back on her rewarding eight-month journey, Jemala said: “When I first heard the AFC Asian Cup was coming to the UAE, I was very excited and wanted everyone to know about Turkmenistan, our fans and our team.
“It was the Playmakers programme that allowed me to do that, by giving me an official platform to spread awareness of the tournament and recruit a special Turkmen fan club. It’s been an amazing journey because there has been a feeling of football uniting all countries throughout.
“My fellow playmakers have been going to similar efforts to spread the excitement of this tournament and that culminates in moments like this where we can watch and support our countries in the stadiums.”
Source: the-afc.com