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Increase global competitiveness
Increase global competitiveness
FIFA made significant strides to bridge the disparities in football across the world in 2020. As well as investigating ways to broaden the globality of its tournaments by increasing participation in the FIFA World Cup™, FIFA Women’s World Cup™ and the FIFA Club World Cup™, FIFA has invested in the bases of sustainable development with a range of technical, talent and grassroots programmes at various stages of inception.
Create additional playing opportunities at a global level
The expansion of elite-level tournaments will raise the level of global competitiveness. The new FIFA Club World Cup, scheduled for 2021 in China PR, was postponed due to knock-on effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but its launch will allow a greater cross-section of clubs to improve their standard of performance through exposure to top-level competition. In addition, the FIFA Women’s World Cup has been expanded to include 32 participants as of the 2023 edition in Australia and New Zealand.
Develop technical directors, coach educators and coaches worldwide
Recognising that the role of technical staff is pivotal to the development of football, over 500 bilateral meetings took place in 2020 between member association (MA) technical directors and FIFA’s regional technical consultants.
Technical directors from 35 MAs took part in individual capacity-building and personal development exercises and almost 700 delegates attended technical workshops. Such educational programmes were cascaded down to coaches and coach educators, with around 200 coach educators receiving mentoring sessions during the year.
A task force, including representation from all confederations, was created to develop a coach licensing recognition system. The sharing of knowledge and best practices between MAs was encouraged and, following a pilot with four countries, the Technical Support Programme kicked off in partnership with the French Football Association.
Establish global high-performance talent development programmes
FIFA launched the Talent Development Programme in January 2020, strongly incentivising MAs to strengthen their domestic development structures through bespoke analysis of both existing infrastructures and unique player pathways. More than 200 MAs joined what will become a truly global initiative.
Increase grassroots and participation programmes across the globe
In total, 60 MAs were surveyed across all confederations in 2020 to assess the status of amateur and grassroots football in their respective jurisdictions. The information gathered will help to define needs and possible next steps for a programme aimed at supporting and encouraging MAs to establish activities to attract boys and girls to the game, irrespective of their level of play.