GENEVA, OCTOBER 4TH -The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) have today agreed on a four-year collaboration aiming to boost, through the sport of football, a healthy life-style globally. The memorandum of understanding was signed by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, and Gianni Infantino, FIFA President, in Geneva where the WHO’s headquarters are located.
FIFA and WHO are uniting their strengths to improve the well-being of people around the world by spreading health messages through activity-related programmes. Both parties expressed great excitement for the partnership. “WHO is excited to be working with FIFA. Half the world watched the 2018 World Cup. This means there’s huge potential for us to team up to reach billions of people with information to help them live longer healthier lives,” said Tedros. Infantino remarked: “I am extremely happy to announce this collaboration with WHO. Football is a unique, universal language and we want to use our platform and network to support health initiatives and promote healthy lifestyles all around the world.”
The agreement lays out four areas of collaboration, among which the making of FIFA and other football related events tabacco free. WHO will provide FIFA with technical advice on the matter, and will help FIFA in its mission to make -other than its own events- all stadiums also tabacco free, by encouraging national football federations to adopt such policies. This is not the first instance of collaboration on the matter: FIFA and WHO already worked together to ban tabacco at the 2018 World Cup.
The other three areas of collaboration are: advocacy to promote a healthy lifestyle through football, establishing health and safety improvements at FIFA events, and joint programmes and initiatives to increase physical activity through football. (SB@OnuItalia)
