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FIFA teams up with UNICEF

Monday, 24 January 2000: The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced a unique partnership today that aims to raise $2 million for UNICEF programs this year and reach out to children with messages on child rights and fair play.

UNICEF will raise funds through the sale of a new product range featuring football-related images and messages. The collection which will include notebooks, binders, backpacks and t-shirts will carry the UNICEF and FIFA logos and will be sold through UNICEF's National Committees, which traditionally market UNICEF's world-renowned line of greeting cards as well as other products.

All profits generated by the new product range will go to support UNICEF's world-wide education, health and development programs for children. FIFA and UNICEF believe the collection will have strong appeal in the youth market in both design and message and will generate $2 million in new program funding this year.

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels on the occasion of the FIFA World Player Gala, with Brazilian football star Rivaldo at his side, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said his organisation was proud to be a supporter of UNICEF.

"Football is all about teamwork," Mr. Blatter said. "As I told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the UN in June – when we had Pélé on hand – it’s about time that the family of football meets the Family of Nations. FIFA is honored to be teaming up with UNICEF on behalf of children everywhere. Few other organisations reach as many children in as many countries as UNICEF; from education to vaccination, from protecting children from exploitation to strengthening their rights, the work of UNICEF is most certainly worth supporting."

UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy welcomed the relationship, noting that it has the potential to grow beyond fundraising and could develop into a concrete campaign to promote child rights.

"Football is a global sport that attracts the interest and attention of hundreds of millions of people on all continents," she observed. "This budding relationship may give UNICEF the opportunity to reach out to those fans with important messages about children's rights. We are beginning to look at how UNICEF and FIFA can work together in specific and dynamic ways to really improve the situation of children."

FIFA already supports the global polio eradication campaign led by World Health Organisation, Rotary International and UNICEF. Last week Blatter and a selection of African football stars helped launch the "Kick Polio Out of Africa" campaign in Ghana.

UNICEF was founded in 1946 and now operates in more than 160 countries world-wide, helping governments and civil society provide for and protect the health, education and general well-being of children and women. It has an annual operating budget of roughly $1 billion. About a third of that total is raised by the various National Committees for UNICEF -- independent organisations chartered to carry out advocacy, education and fundraising in industrialised countries. Around the world there are 37 National Committees for UNICEF.

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