FIFA head applauds football in Kingdom
FIFA President Gianni Infantino claimed that the Football Federation of Cambodia (FFC) “is doing an excellent job” in its development of youth football programs as FIFA’s Executive Football Summit in Phnom Penh wound down on Friday.
After the one-day meeting held at t he capita l’s Sof itel hotel, t he Swiss-Ita lian, who f lew i nto t he K i ngdom on Thursday evening on his first v isit to t he countr y, heaped pr a i s e on t he e f f or t s of the FFC in its youth development prog ra ms across t he Kingdom.
Wit h FFC yout h development prog ra ms in 25 provi nces a nd c it ies, t he FI FA president said: “The Cambodia n Footba ll Associat ion is doi ng a n exc el lent job i n ter ms of footba l l development in the countr y, with the new projects we’ve been disc ussi ng as wel l as t he philosophies we want to develop boys’ and girls’ footba ll.
“They are working hard with their objectives in the run-up to the SEA Games in 2023 [which Cambodia will host].”
The FFC brought in its new development program in 2017 in order to find talented players for the future, with at least one academy planned to be built in each province.
According to FFC Vice President Khiev Sameth, FIFA has increased its support budget for the Kingdom from $250,000 to $1,250,000 per year.
“[At the Summit] we also discussed our football development program called the Forward Program, in which we are investing $1.4 billion worldwide over four years,” Infantino said.
“[At FIFA] we are exchanging experiences and best practices