KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo, February 21, 2021/ — FIFA (www.FIFA.com) and the African Union have agreed to launch a schools football competition following a meeting in Kinshasa between FIFA President Gianni Infantino and the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Félix Tshisekedi, who is also the current Chairperson of the African Union (AU).
The two presidents, who had initiated discussions last week by videoconference, met at the Palais de la Nation in the DRC’s capital to further their productive talks of the previous days, and central to their exchange was the need to use the power of football to improve lives and to harness the possibilities it offers to instil positive values in young people.
On this subject, both the FIFA President and the AU Chairperson agreed to use the framework of the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the African Union, FIFA and CAF, to organise schools football competition across Africa, which will kick off in the DRC. To initiate the project, a protocol was signed this afternoon between FIFA and the Ministry of Sports and Leisure of the DRC.
“President Tshisekedi is passionate about football, and I’m delighted that we can work together to give hope to all children across Africa thanks to football,” the FIFA President said at the conclusion of the meeting. “Together, FIFA, AU, CAF and our member associations will develop competitions and training for the youth through football, because football is more than a sport, it is a school of life. Through football, you can teach respect for adversaries and rules, learning how to play as a team, how to win and lose. With this schools championship we plan to make these values, which are already strong in Africa, even stronger.”
Subsequently, the FIFA President also had the opportunity to visit the offices of the Congo DR Football Association (FECOFA) and to meet with FECOFA President Constant Omari, the FECOFA executive committee and several representatives of the football community of Congo DR.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Fédération internationale de football association (FIFA).
SOURCE
Fédération internationale de football association (FIFA)
Great pan African initiative. Also time to consider Africa hosting premier league games because of reduced risk of covid here which means crowds can buy tickets and watch. Africa is the next big thing. Those who ran away to diaspora were actually f00lish
Not all that glitters is gold, beware of COVID-19; don’t let this be a trap to super-spread COVID-19 or any other diseases like Ebola.
Only agree to do this when the dangers are all behind us.
You can ignore the above comment from myself.
There’s so much to do in all sports especially in Africa. We can achieve integration through sport. COMESA must put on the table the COMESA SPORTS FESTIVAL for all sports disciplines. That’ll promote more trade and integration among members countries than a President secretly flying to Kenya accompanied by dubious characters. The COSAFA Castle cup has helped build football in Southern Africa. Teams that were previously looked down upon can now compete with the bigger boys. However we shouldn’t concentrate on football alone. Besides, soccer is very costly to run especially in Africa. There’s no national soccer team that can exist in Africa without government support. Sports in schools have gone down. We need to revive that, especially that many people are followers of various sports…
It’s through such programs that Zambia was able to produce international sportspersons like Philip Musonda, Dick Mpheneka, Samuel Matete, Teza & Niza Simunyola, Kalusha Bwalya, Musonda Ngwira, etc not Andrew Kamanga, Adrian Kashala, Elias Mpondela ba kumanyoko
This is a great idea..if it can be spread out to all the countries it can help improve African football ???
May this soon come to fruition….we want improved soccer in Africa
FiFa can only put small competitions in Africa but bigger
Ones in Europe and elsewhere.