Students and a teacher from a Malaysian primary school show off sporting donations. [Photo/hangzhou2022.cn]

The Asian Games Football Dream Project, an important public welfare branch of the much-anticipated 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022, witnessed new breakthroughs in its overseas promotion this year, local media outlets reported.

Countries and regions such as Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan have followed in the footsteps of the project's first overseas launch in Malaysia last year, embracing the smooth start of the project.

For example, the Chiu Yang Por Yen Primary School in Hong Kong, which has shown much enthusiasm for football and high expectations for the Games during its application, became the first in the special administrative region to be shortlisted as an Asian Games Dream Football School.

While looking at Malaysia, where the project's first school was named, the Southeast Asian country by August had seen 100 of its schools shortlisted and over 30 of them receiving donations.

The Asian Games Football Dream Project was initiated by the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee and the Young Footballer Growth Fund on April 19, 2018. It aims to support 2,022 schools throughout Asia by donating equipment, offering courses, and organizing camps and competitions to get more youth interested in soccer ahead of the Hangzhou 2022 Games.

By the end of August 2022, over 2,500 schools across Asia had applied to the project online, with more than 1,902 having been shortlisted after evaluation and nearly 1,300 of them having received donations.

An invitation sent by the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee to two Japanese schools to participate in the project. [Photo/hangzhou2022.cn]