In approving the renewal, the AFC Grassroots Panel looked at key areas including women’s football, which was found to have a favourable player ratio between genders and continued to grow, demonstrating the NMIFA’s “Football Unites Us” ethos.

Their long-standing partnership with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Public School System, which governs public and private schools for students aged six to 19, was also assessed and found to be successful in organising interscholastic leagues that exponentially increased player participation.

Additionally, NMIFA’s training facility was highlighted as possessing dedicated and necessary amenities and equipment to support training, matches and other relevant activities. The facility was also found to be continuously upgraded to better serve the public.

The Panel also came away impressed by NMIFA’s endeavours to ramp up its capacity-building over the coming years despite limited resources and other obstacles, pointing out that the Association’s activities were essential to keeping the local community inspired and healthy. 

"Our renewal is a product of collaborative efforts among NMI football stakeholders, from the NMIFA leadership to club officials, members, players, officials, volunteers and our community partners,” said NMIFA President Jerry Tan. “It serves to motivate us to continue to work hard, find ways to grow our programmes and provide life-changing opportunities for all involved.

"The NMIFA is deeply grateful to the Asian Football Confederation and its other partners for their continued support to NMI grassroots football. We look forward to more collaboration to fulfil our mission of utilising football as a platform for the promotion of an active, healthy lifestyle in our community and the creation of pathways for stakeholders."

The AFC Grassroots Charter is a development tool that aims to increase the quality of grassroots programmes across the Continent with as many as 43 Member Associations currently benefitting from the landmark benchmarking initiative.