Football fed doing excellent job: Infantino
between member associations in order to learn from each other.”
Infantino went on to say that Asean has every right to dream of hosting the World Cup, as regional countries plan a joint bid for football’s showpiece tournament.
The head of FIFA said: “I have been hearing that there are some ideas for [a] 2034 [bid]. Southeast Asia has a population of 600 million, a big majority of who are foot- ball crazy, and for this reason I think Southeast Asia has the full right to dream big and to have ambitions.”
But he cautioned that hosting a World Cup is a big challenge and bidders should consider organising a Youth World Cup beforehand.
Infantino said: “Of course, organising a World Cup is a big undertaking, it’s a huge event and there are many steps that have to be made before a World Cup can be organised, so [the Asean bidders] should consider hosting a youth or wom- en’s competition [to gain experience] before [bidding for] the main competition.”
According to FFC Vice President Sameth, Southeast Asia has set up a committee to organise a future World Cup bid.
Infantino told reporters of the purpose of the Summit Series: “With the new way of working at FIFA, we want to present the topics we are studying to all our member associations . . . to discuss [the issues] with them before we take decisions.”