Infantino delighted with ‘spectacular’ FIFA U-15 World Cup

Well, I think so far it has been really a spectacular tournament when you're here. When you see these boys coming from 189 countries from all over the world, coming, enjoying, playing. Of course, some are stronger than others, some are more prepared than others, but they all enjoy, they all have fun, they all celebrate. Not just playing football, but being together, uniting. I mean, this is incredible. It's 3,000, 4,000 players, officials, referees, all participating in these 1,000 games in one week. It's really beautiful, and you can see and you can feel the joy of these boys. They deserve it, and that's what FIFA is about, right? Football is for everyone, everywhere, and we are uniting everyone with football. Beautiful, beautiful. Well, I think it is exactly what we wanted. We want to give everyone a chance to be part of a World Cup. And this World Cup and Festival for the under-15 is exactly what FIFA stands for. Every country in the world, 211 have been invited. 90% of them have decided to come and to participate. For most of these children, it's the first time they travel, the first time they have a passport. They will make friends with children or young adults, young boys from other parts of the world. They are part of a FIFA event, for the federations it means as well. They have to work in developing players and scouting players and investing in infrastructure and youth competitions. and for these boys it is an experience that they will remember for for their whole life. Some of them will certainly play in World Cups, they might win World Cups as well in future, but all of these boys they will remember this for their entire life, they will speak about it to their children, their grandchildren, and it's important that everyone has the feeling of being part of something big. Well, you know, what you see here with this under-15, what you see with the work we've been doing over the last 10 years in investing in football all over the world. When I became FIFA president 10 years ago, every member association was receiving $250,000 a year, $1 million over four years. The FIFA Council just decided that this amount should go up to $25 million. So from $1 million to $25 million over a four-year cycle. Now this money is being invested in these boys and the girls in youth football in football development all over the world it's it's not easy money doesn't uh come on its own we have all to work very very hard to generate these resources but thanks to generating these resources we can provide more opportunities to all these boys and the girls all over the world and this is the reason why we continue working tirelessly for exactly this. three, two, one, two, one, thank you, thank you, thank you very much, thank you, pleasure to meet you thank you, thank you, come in the evening, thank you, thank you