Gianni Infantino, addressing the FIFA Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, has stressed that FIFA’s mission is to grow football globally and provide more opportunities to play competitively to teams from all around the globe.

The FIFA President proposed organising an Under-15 football festival, open to all 211 FIFA Member Associations, in addition to the expansion of its U-20 and U-17 tournaments which is already underway. And he stressed that, despite organising only a tiny percentage of club and national team matches worldwide, FIFA was unique in that it distributed its revenue around the world – with around 70% of member associations relying on its support to organise football in their territories.

Mr Infantino began his speech by talking about football’s unique power to bring people together. "We were saying (that) Football Unites the World. But we all know as well that today, we are living in a very aggressive and divided world,” he said. “Uniting this world is our responsibility, it is our answer to the aggression, our answer to the hate, our answer to the war. It is bringing people from all over the world together – this is what football does, from south to north from east to west…..The only thing that matters is the colour of the jersey that the players will wear for their club or national team.”

FIFA's mission, he said, was to continue growing the game around the world. Already, solidarity payments to member associations have increased seven-fold since 2016, while FIFA was providing new playing opportunities in both women's and men's football by enlarging and introducing new competitions. The most recent included the FIFA Women's Futsal World Cup™, with the first edition in the Philippines in 2025, and the FIFA Women's Club World Cup™, foreseen to start in 2026, after a decision by the FIFA Council earlier this week. The FIFA President also spoke of the FIFA Series friendly internationals, which were organised for the first time in March this year in five countries to provide national teams with opportunities to meet opposition from other confederations.