Lenin Moreno, President of Ecuador, met with Gianni Infantino, FIFA's top executive, in Switzerland to present the 'Fair Play 2030' project, which also proposes co-hosting the FIFA World Cup 2030. Colombia and Peru are the other countries that would also host the premier international football tournament.
Below is the note published on the FIFA website:
FIFA President Gianni Infantino received Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, on Thursday, January 23. Both leaders held a meeting that provided the visiting Head of State with the opportunity to present the 'Fair Play 2030' project, which combines sports and social goals, as well as to express the Andean country's interest in co-hosting the FIFA World Cup 2030.
"I want to congratulate the President for his work, especially for the Fair Play project, which will be crucial for the youth - FIFA President stated - and which we will support together with the Ecuadorian Football Federation. I myself will go to Ecuador very soon to see specifically how we can make this project even more successful."
"We have also talked about the 2030 World Cup and Ecuador's willingness, along with some neighbors, to perhaps be candidates - Infantino added - As President of FIFA, I am delighted; the more candidates, of course, the better. And if they are beautiful countries like Ecuador, football countries like Ecuador, what more could we ask for! Before that, let's see what other competitions we can organize - youth, women's - because football belongs to everyone, men and women."
"We have talked about the projects we have; the main one is Fair Play. Not only playing fair on the field but mainly off it. The value of loyalty, honesty, transparency, what is seen on the field, the passion, the tenacity that is reflected on the field, to be transferred to daily life in values that allow us to live better in society," commented Lenin Moreno.
"Then we talked about our aspiration to be the venue for the 2030 World Cup, which has been received with great enthusiasm. We will be attentive to the conditions for applying. This decision will be made in 2024. We aspire to it, even if it benefits the three countries - Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia - that we aspire to."
The 'Fair Play 2030' program aims to build or remodel a thousand soccer fields in Ecuador in order to use this sport as an instrument of social development to mitigate drug consumption, violence, and corruption.
Furthermore, the Ecuadorian Football Federation has decided to create 500 new soccer schools to support the development of talents between the ages of ten and eighteen. (D)
