May 24 – Mauritius, host to next week’s gathering of the world’s football federations for the 63rd FIFA Congress, will kick proceedings off with the opening of a new facility and the renaming of an older one.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter will be on hand to open Mauritius’ fourth Goal project, the installation of a football pitch in the Trianon Technical Centre on Sunday May 26. The Mauritius FA is also renaming its headquarters to the ‘Sepp Blatter Football House’ in honour of the FIFA President.
Mauritius has benefited from an overall Goal investment of about $2 million. The technical centre, one of the best training complexes in Africa, is the centre for about 80,000 footballers on this Indian Ocean island.
Mauritius was also one of the first countries to implement FIFA’s landmark 11 for Health programme. The initiative launched in January 2010 by the Mauritius FA and Mauritius’ government has reached about 20,000 children in their first year of secondary school, who have been taught through a football-based programme how to live a healthy life and avoid diseases. “The special session we implemented on diabetes proved an excellent platform to tackle one of the major health threats in Mauritius,” said FIFA chief medical officer Jiri Dvorak.
“The results obtained after the implementation of 11 for Health in Mauritius clearly showed the positive impact football can have as an effective and low-cost tool to prevent diseases,” remarked FIFA Chief Medical Officer, Jiri Dvorak. “Throughout the past years, Africa has been the largest recipient of FIFA Goal projects,” said FIFA Director of Member Associations and Development, Thierry Regenass. “Mauritius is a good example of how, in spite of difficult structural and geographical conditions, effective development initiatives can be implemented in a variety of areas, thus making a concrete contribution to local population.”
More than $67 million has been invested by FIFA between 1999 and 2012 in 163 Goal projects in Africa. Most of the funds have been used for the construction and extension of technical centres (73), football pitches (39) and headquarter projects (29). An additional $259.9 million has been invested since 1999 in Africa through FIFA’s Financial Assistance Programme (FAP). FIFA’s total investment in Africa between 1999 and 2012 haas reached $426 million
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