2023 FIFA Football Summit Held in Saudi Arabia
The 2023 FIFA Football Summit was held in 2 days 21 and 21 December in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. VFF’s President Tran Quoc Tuan and General Secretary Duong Nghiep Khoi attended the Summit
26/12/2023 17:29:20
At the submit, FIFA Legends Gilberto Silva, Kaká and Alessandro Del Piero have highlighted the need for action in relation to discrimination against football players in both real-life situations and online at the FIFA Football Summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“Nowadays, social media has been so tough for many people. In football, we see this a lot – for players, referees, football federations, the leaders, everybody, the fans,” said Gilberto Silva during a Q&A session where he spoke about his personal experiences and looked at methods to reinforce the fight against discriminatory behaviour in football. “Everybody’s suffering with that but also young teenagers, young kids are suffering a lot of anxiety and mental problems due to the constant abuse they suffer. This has caused a lot of problems for them because they are losing focus. Together we can stop this as soon as possible: all of us here can do our part in stopping this online abuse.”
From an organisational perspective, FIFA has implemented a strategic programme since 2016 to embed respect for human rights in all operations and relationships. This led to the three-step procedure being implemented in FIFA competitions and was followed by FIFA launching the #NoDiscrimination campaign in 2021.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino also emphasized the message regarding abuse and violence towards referees: “Without referees, there’s no football. We all have to fight for the referees against any sort of abuse and violence against referees, but also to bring back respect and tolerance. And this starts with us, this starts with you, with the leaders of football, with the way we speak, with the way we act. It is our responsibility…”
In advance of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, the Social Media Protection Service (SMPS) was established in partnership with FIFPRO to monitor and moderate comments on various online platforms as a next step in fighting discrimination. The SMPS service has now been used in eight FIFA tournaments, including the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™ where it had a significant impact.
Besides that, FIFA also announced the plan to establish one elite youth academy in each of 211 FIFA Member Associations by end of 2027 and deploy coaches to bolster local coaching capacity.
