Gianni Infantino, the President of the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) and Patrice Motsepe, the President of the Confederation of African (CAF), on Thursday, June 23, talked about the power that football can have in transforming communities. They were speaking during one of the forums of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kigali. I am in Kigali to speak about something that truly unites the whole of the commonwealth, which is football. This is the topic that unites all of us, Infantino said in a panel discussion. He highlighted, for example, that the World Cup unites nations. We are having the Qatar world cup 2022 and hence Qatar will be uniting the whole of the Arab world and the next one will be in the North America where there are two countries that were about to be separated by walls, he said. So, there are a lot of factors in football that contribute in uniting people and that is what we need more and more in our world, he added. On his part, Motsepe said there is need to look at sports in a social and economic uplifting role. The businesses that I am associated with have operations in 40 countries in Africa, and other continents as well. We’ve been extensively involved in football philanthrophy, because football is a unique tool to entertain the youths and create a future for them, he said. He urged that the people in the Commonwealth have a role to play in terms of education, skills and uplifting standards of living in business growth and development. It also engages the youths and all of us because of the huge impact it has, in Africa, we use it as the force, power and engine to ensure quality of African football so that our clubs can compete, and one of the objectives we’ve set is that in few years to come, Plenty of African nations can win the World Cup, he said. He also talked about the impact of the World Cup that will take place in Qatar, as an example of what football can do. It is fair to say that the spotlight of the world cup has transformed Qatar in terms of workers and human’s rights and minimum wage among others, he said. There are many sports but football is special, it has emotional bonds, that is why we are investing a lot in the commonwealth because I am told football is there to invest in education of our children through sports and football. And we try to pass on moral lessons through football, he added.
