Asian Rugby Football Union

Asian Rugby Football Union
Formation 1968
Type Sports federation
Headquarters Hong Kong
Membership
 31 unions[1]
President
 Thailand Adisak Hemyoo
Website http://www.arfu.com/

The Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) is the governing body of rugby union in Asia under the authority of the World Rugby. Founded in 1968 by eight charter nations, the Union today has 29 member unions in countries across Asia, stretching from Kazakhstan to Guam.

The aim of ARFU is: "to raise physical and moral standards in Asia by education in the healthy pursuit of Rugby Football and to promote friendship among Asian countries."

Competitions

The ARFU supports regional and pan-Asian tournaments including the Asian Rugby Championship and women's, men's, and under 19's tournaments in sevens and fifteen-a-side rugby.

Asian Sevens Series

The Asian Sevens Series is like the HSBC Sevens World Series, but at a regional level.[2][3][4]

Members

ARFU(Asia) Rankings
Top 15 Rankings as of 31 March 2014[5]
RankChange*TeamPointsWR
1 Steady  Japan 72.0613
2 Steady  South Korea 58.1023
3 Steady  Hong Kong56.3525
4 Increase  Sri Lanka 49.6640
5 Decrease  Kazakhstan 48.1145
6 Increase  Singapore 44.5455
7 Decrease  Philippines 44.0957
8 Decrease  Chinese Taipei 43.4158
9 Increase  Thailand 43.3759
10 Decrease  China 40.7366
11 Decrease  Malaysia 40.2070
12 Increase  India 39.3775
13 Decrease  Pakistan 38.3877
14 Steady  Indonesia 30.0097
14 Steady  United Arab Emirates 30.0097
Based on the IRB World Ranking

As of February 2015, the ARFU has 31 member unions.[1] Not all Asian member unions are members of World Rugby (WR).[6] The AFRU's members are listed below, with the year each union joined World Rugby shown in brackets. World Rugby associates are shown in italics.

There are 17 World Rugby members, and 6 World Rugby associates:

There are 8 ARFU members not affiliated with World Rugby

  • Afghanistan Afghanistan
  • Bangladesh Bangladesh
  • Jordan Jordan
  • Lebanon Lebanon
  • Macau Macau
  • Nepal Nepal
  • Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia
  • Qatar Qatar

Notes:

 * Denotes World Rugby associate membership date.

The Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union was split up in 2011. It comprised the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman. The new governing body for the UAE is already active and has its own national team. UAE became the 100th full member of World Rugby in November 2012.[7] The other countries have not yet joined the ARFU.

Several governing bodies which administer partially, or largely Asian countries, such as that of Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel and Russia are members of the European body, Rugby Europe. Moreover, the recently formed Turkish Rugby Federation is expected to join Europe as well. Conversely, Kazakhstan, which is administered by European associations in other sports (such as within the football governing body, FIFA) is administered as part of the ARFU. In addition, the ARFU includes Guam (the organized unincorporated territory of the United States), which is arguably not in Asia, but in Oceania, and one transcontinental country, Indonesia.

ARFU officers

(Officers are ex officio members of the EXCO)

(Jarrad Gallagher, World Rugby Development Officer for Asia)

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Unions ARFU, 2015.
  2. ↑ Rugby and the Olympics. IRB
  3. ↑ Asian 7s Series. ARFU.
  4. ↑ Promising start for Asian Sevens Series. UR7s.
  5. ↑ "ARFU (Asia) Rankings". Retrieved 7 May 2012.
  6. ↑ "Handbook" (PDF). World Rugby. 2014. pp. 16–10. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  7. ↑ "UAE become 100th full member of the IRB". RTE. 27 November 2012. Retrieved 28 November 2012.

External links