EU Pledges to Help Africa Via Soccer
July 9, 2006
The memorandum is designed to use the world's most popular sport as a platform for communicating a positive image of Africa, raising awareness of the continent's potential and to fight against racism and discrimination.
A "significant" part of the EU's 25-billion-euro ($31.9 billion) development aid coffer for Africa will be used to also promote health, education and integration via soccer.
"Soccer has proved yet again it can bring people together," FIFA President Sepp Blatter said at a signing ceremony in Berlin with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, South African President Thabo Mbeki and EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel.
"We share the same message of solidarity in a world that is more and more selfish," Blatter said. "Soccer can be the instrument to create a world full of hope, through better education and health."
Mbeki promises successful World Cup
Mbeki said the sport brought hope in even the most desperate of situations.
"When young people play soccer they forget they are poor and in despair," he said. "We want to take that to bring them hope and achieve change."
Mbeki added he was confident his nation would organize a successful World Cup, having been given the honor of hosting the event in Africa for the first time.
"We understood very well what was required when we applied to FIFA," he said. "Africa will not fail. In a way, we can understand the skepticism but we will show these people."