The best football coaches of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) region had agreed to use video replays during crucial moments of matches during their gathering in the inaugural AFC Elite Club Coaches' Forum in Shanghai, China last week.

The two-day forum, which was attended by some of the top football managers in the region as well as foreign coaches such as Shanghai SIPG's Sven-Göran Eriksson and Shandong Luneng's Felix Magath, had gathered the consensus of Asia's premier coaches with regards to the use of such technology during games.

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Inside World Football reported that "the coaches felt that the use of technology should be expanded and that video replays in particular protected the referees by being able to check decisions, as well as ensuring wrong decisions were corrected".

Within the Asian region, only Australia's A-League has been using the video replay technology and the coaches said to have felt that it is time to expand its use to different top flight leagues around the continent as well.

The meeting, which was organized by the AFC headed by its director Andy Roxburgh, had focused on the AFC's goal to get the top coaches of the region to "share information and opinions on a wide range of footballing issues including competitions, coaching trends, laws, refereeing, media, and technical football development".

"This type of forum is definitely the way to go for football in Asia. At this event you learnt something and leave the forum with some issues to contemplate. It is also good to spend time with coaches that you may only see for a few seconds during the AFC Champions League," Eriksson said.

Meanwhile, AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa expressed his delight with the success of the forum, saying that the gathering "will help deliver the objectives of our Vision and Mission, which is to improve the technical level and competitiveness of Asian teams", as per Ghana Soccernet.

"There are so many experienced coaches in the room and they will provide the AFC with some crucial learnings as we develop our strategy over the coming years and I am grateful for their contribution to football in Asia," Al Khalifa added.

TagsFootball News, afc, AFC News, sven goran eriksson, AFC Elite Club Coaches' Forum