TOKYO (AP) — The best place to develop Japanese talent is in the English Premier League, the president of the Japan Football Association told continental soccer delegates Wednesday.
Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, speaking at an Asian Football Confederation seminar and regional meeting, emphasized the goal of getting more Japanese players to sign in Europe — particularly England.
“We have nine players who are playing for Premier League clubs and also eight players are playing for second division clubs,” he told the seminar. “But still, we would like to send more players to the English Premier League because the league offers the players the best environment to become top-class players. That’s our aim.”
Miyamoto was a defender and led Japan's 2002 and 2006 World Cup teams.
Gianni Infantino, the president of soccer's global governing body FIFA, is seeking his fourth term and has been globetrotting in search of votes from FIFA’s 211 member federations.
The AFC has 47 member associations that could provide crucial swing votes with Europe largely opposing Infantino and Africa offering wide support.
Infantino is traveling in Asia and was expected to appear at the two-day meeting of the AFC in Tokyo. FIFA has promoted his presence recently in Bhutan and Bangladesh, small federations that each have one vote — the same as powerful soccer nations such as Spain or France.
The FIFA presidential election is in March and opposition candidates have until Nov. 18 to declare. None has so far filed.
Infantino apologized last week in Zurich, Switzerland, to FIFA’s 37-member ruling council — which he chairs — for “mistakes’ he made in assembling a now-scrapped $4.2 billion sell-off plan for the World Cup.
An Associated Press tally shows 87 of the 211 federations have indicated support for Infantino — either in individual comments or by endorsing statements of support by their regional confederations. Asia appears split. Qatar, the host of the 2022 World Cup, has come out in support of Infantino and Jordan has declared its opposition.
The AFC meetings are largely closed to the media. The conference is being shown on the AFC's YouTube channel.
Infantino is not listed among the official speakers at the summit. The closing address Thursday is by AFC president, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa.
See AP’s full soccer coverage here
FILE - President of the Japan Football Association Tsuneyasu Miyamoto announces Japan's squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup during a news conference in Tokyo, Friday, May 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in St. Petersburg on Wednesday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as U.S. President Donald Trump pushes Kyiv to make a deal that stops the fighting.
The visit came a day after Witkoff met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and some European leaders in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.
Witkoff planned to return to Oslo for more consultations after his trip to Russia, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said.
“I think we may have entered a phase now where the Russians are also looking for opportunities for diplomacy,” Støre told Norwegian broadcaster NRK on Wednesday morning.
Zelenskyy was still in Oslo on Wednesday, where he was visiting the country’s Parliament and meeting lawmakers.
Witkoff’s meetings suggested leaders are keen to bring momentum to U.S.-led peace efforts, more than 4 1/2 years after Russia’s army invaded. Efforts by the Trump administration since early last year to end the war have made no significant progress, and there was no suggestion of an imminent breakthrough.
Russia and Ukraine are still far apart in their terms for a settlement, as their armies remain locked on the battlefield and they pummel each other with daily long-range strikes.
Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov said the Russian president will host Witkoff at the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg in the first half of the day on Wednesday. Presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev will take part in the meeting, he said.
“Negotiations on a settlement in Ukraine are, naturally, an integral part of today’s agenda,” Ushakov told reporters.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that Moscow is willing to listen to new U.S. proposals about Ukraine but he doesn’t expect any “miracle” from Washington.
At the White House on Tuesday, Trump increased the pressure on Zelenskyy to come to an agreement with Russia as relations between the two men have soured again.
“We want Zelenskyy to make a deal,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’ve given a lot to Ukraine. We’ve gotten absolutely nothing back except grief, death, tremendous monetary loss.”
If that doesn’t happen, “I think it’s going to be a very bad thing,” Trump said.
Amid fears that Washington was turning its back on Ukraine, Zelenskyy said Kyiv is once again receiving early warnings from its partners about incoming Russian missiles, after recent strikes that he said occurred without enough notice from allies.
The change happened after Zelenskyy spoke with his American counterparts, including a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a press conference on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026 in Oslo, Norway. (Lise Åserud/NTB Scanpix via AP)
Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, right, greets U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff at the international airport outside St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (TASS Photo via AP)
