The President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Ahmad Ahmad has led the first delegation of African FA Presidents to Qatar to explore opportunities in their partnership with the Qatar Football Association (QFA).

The high level delegation of CAF met with President of the Qatar Football Association (QFA) Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani on Wednesday to also discuss matters relating to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

CAF President Ahmad was leading the first delegation of about 23 federations in Africa with the rest of the federation scheduled for the coming months to explore such opportunities to the benefit of their respective countries.

The visit is part of the strategy of President Ahmad to get African FAs to benefit from the rich experiences of the Qatar FA ahead of the country's hosting of the World Cup in 2022.

The delegation that arrived in Doha this week got the opportunity to review projects carried out by Qatar ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The high-powered meetings serve as an extension to the Memorandum of Understanding signed between CAF and QFA in May 2015 with the African FAs benefiting from the agreement.

The 2015 MoU focused on the exchange of experience and expertise in various areas such as administration, coaching, sports medicine, refereeing, youth and women’s football, infrastructure development, and marketing and communications.

With Qatar advanced in these areas of football operations thanks to its impending hosting of the World Cup, CAF President Ahmad expects African FAs to benefit from these exchanges to improve the game and its administration on the continent.

The CAF delegation were also met by QFA Vice President Saud Al Mohannadi and Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary-General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC).

The visiting delegation reviewed the progress of work related to the 2022 FIFA World Cup projects. A luncheon reception was also arranged by the SC in honour of the visiting delegation.

The CAF delegation praised the extensive development work carried out by Qatar so far.

Mansoor Al Ansari, QFA Secretary General, commenced the presentation for the CAF delegation while engineer Abdulaziz Al Mawlawi underlined key projects linked to the 2022 FIFA World Cup and its legacy which stretches beyond to Qatar’s Vision 2030.

Also on Wednesday,  Executive Director of Josoor Institute Afraa Al Noaimi highlighted the Institute’s major plans in the coming months and projects like training courses and workshops carried out in the last few years.

These workshops have benefited hundreds of participants since its inception in the field of sports management and science.

Officials part of the visiting delegation said Qatar looked confident to delivering one of the best FIFA World Cup editions using creativity and innovation at the heart of its infrastructure development.

Details on the infrastructure development carried out by Qatar were also revealed to the CAF delegation that also visited the widely-acclaimed Aspire Academy and the Aspetar Sports Medicine Hospital.

A visit to Katara and Museum of Islamic Art are also on the agenda for the delegation’s stay in Qatar.