Since 2016, our mission at FIFA has been based around one simple message - to bring football back to FIFA, and FIFA back to football – and it has been a mission that has seen many different iterations. First of all, we had to make the governance and organisation of this body fit to serve football, all its fans, all 211 FIFA Member Associations and all its stakeholders. Once that was done, the work could really begin to make football truly global. As I presented to the 73rd FIFA Congress 2023 in Kigali, Rwanda, and I reiterate here, my focus, and that of FIFA, centres on 11 strategic objectives for the next four years.
In delivering these objectives, we should always remember that FIFA is made up of national football associations representing 211 countries from around the world. Each of them has the same duty to preserve, protect and promote football and each has an equal right to be respected for doing that, in ways which are appropriate to its environment. Everybody has the same entitlement to participate in, enjoy and flourish through our great sport.
It is only when equality exists that football can truly unite people and bring communities together.
It was an honour for me to retain the mandate to lead world football’s governing body at the aforementioned 73rd FIFA Congress. However, that brings with it a responsibility that I do not take lightly.
The last four-year period illustrated very clearly that FIFA must remain dynamic and flexible in a world that is constantly changing. After all, who could have foreseen the impact that a global pandemic would have on society and FIFA’s need to be strong and to be there for football in its hour of need?
My promises for the next four years are to organise competitions, to develop football and to expand FIFA’s presence across the world in order to better serve our fans and all our stakeholders. As witnessed at the greatest-ever FIFA Women’s World Cup, with 32 teams for the first time, even more players were given the chance to shine on the global stage and inspire millions of girls and women to do the same.
More teams will battle it out for the title of world champions in Canada, Mexico and the United States in 2026 and the new FIFA Club World Cup will have expanded those opportunities at club level as well one year earlier.
Organising more and better competitions and striving for continual development and a level playing field across the globe may be our core business, but we must never forget the impact we have on people, the economy and the planet and the educational role that our events have beyond the football pitch. We must always remember that as we deliver this vision for every one of our 211 FIFA Member Associations and the whole football community. Altogether, this represents how Football Unites the World, and provides the strategic objectives for the global game.
Yours in football,
Gianni Infantino
FIFA President