Friday 20 December 2019, 10:32

Football development reaching the highest level in Doha 

  • FIFA Forward workshop gathers AFC, CAF and OFC MAs for strategic development programme in Doha, Qatar

  • Participants exchanged their experiences in strategy, best practices in football development and other crucial aspects

  • Workshop organised under FIFA Forward 2.0 included a tour of Aspire Academy and Legacy Pavilion of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy

A FIFA Forward workshop held in Doha from 16 to 17 December 2019, organised in collaboration with the Qatar Football Association (QFA), welcomed representatives of five Member Associations (MAs) from the African Continent, five associations from Asia and two from Oceania. The main objectives of the workshop was to share knowledge in various fields of football development such as long-term strategy planning of a Member Association, strategy to increase the number of football participants in line with FIFA Living Football principles and a review on the FIFA Forward 2.0 Programme.

Day one of the event was dedicated to presentations prepared by the QFA's General Secretary and the Josoor Institute. The delegates had the chance to share best practices of football development and discuss various challenges and solutions during Question & Answer (Q&A) sessions. This was followed with a visit to the Qatar 2022 Legacy Pavilion with its exposition on the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ telling the story of Qatar through football - from the game’s early days in the country to the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy’s preparations to host the World Cup.

Day two commenced with the FIFA Forward 2.0 Programme, including its financial aspects and amendments in the new cycle 2019-2022. This was followed by a presentation from the Chief Member Associations Division Officer, Véron Mosengo-Omba, on strategies to be adopted to increase the number of football participants. In the afternoon, the participants had a guided tour of the Aspire Academy, a state-of-the-art infrastructure facility in football performance and development.

Football development reaching the highest level in Doha 

“Qatar Football Association is honoured to host this workshop. It gives me great pleasure to welcome all the participants to this workshop which aims to share knowledge and experience from the experts at FIFA. QFA continues to take pride in hosting such workshops to help developing the game at various levels and tackle global football matters while considering the local issues facing football management around the world. The football family in Qatar is actively pursuing to host more of such events in the future also," said Mansoor Al Ansari, General Secretary, Qatar Football Association.

“I think it's a great initiative taken by FIFA to involve various MAs originating from various confederations to share experiences and learn from countries like Qatar which have managed to elaborate strong strategies to overcome their main challenges. Through their presentations, they managed to share with colleagues from different regions, as our MA (Samoa), rather than working in isolation and not sharing their valuable know-how. It also demonstrates FIFA’s strong commitment and willingness to grow and develop the game globally for all. By creating such initiatives and involving multiple MAs, allowing them to come together and share ideas and strategies will keep football moving forward,” said the President of Football Federation Samoa (FFS), Sam Petaia.

Convinced by the importance of such gatherings, Véron Mosengo-Omba, Chief of FIFA’s Member Associations Division, said: “This Strategic Development Meeting was an excellent opportunity for our member associations originating from different Confederations to come together and share knowledge, experience and perspectives. We are grateful for all the hospitality provided by the Qatar Football Association (QFA) and their willingness to share their different activities and programmes with us. It was also a unique opportunity to learn about theoretical and practical elements. With the visits to the Aspire Academy and the Pavilion 2022, the attending member associations were able to actively observe the QFA’s development strategy, which the General Secretary of the QFA had earlier presented to the group. FIFA remains committed to organizing similar meetings in the future."