Geneva<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
FIFA\u2019s decision to sign a partnership agreement with Trump\u2019s Board of Peace earlier this month has proven controversial but is expected to proceed as planned.<\/p>\n
The Board of Peace, established under the US President Donald Trump, held its first meeting on February 19, and focused on Gaza\u2019s reconstruction.<\/p>\n
The FIFA collaboration plan includes building 50 mini-pitches near schools and residential areas in Gaza, five full-size pitches across multiple districts, a state-of-the-art FIFA academy and a new 20,000-seat national stadium, FIFA said.<\/p>\n
Trump said FIFA will raise $75 million for football-related projects in \u00a0Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, FIFA and the Board of Peace have signed a landmark partnership agreement that will foster investment into football for the purpose of helping the recovery process in post conflict areas,\u201d FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The programme will also emphasise job creation, youth participation, organised leagues for boys and girls, community engagement and \u00a0the stimulation of local commercial activities, FIFA said.<\/p>\n
Critics of the FIFA plan accused Infantino of seeking to carry favour with Trump infringing on the football federation\u2019s rule of political neutrality.<\/p>\n
During the inaugural event, Infantino sported a red hat with \u2018USA\u2019 on the front and the numbers 45-47, for the two non-consecutive presidencies of Trump.<\/p>\n
He also bestowed on the US president FIFA\u2019s inaugural peace prize last December.<\/p>\n
Trump has met Infantino several times, with the United States set to co-host this summer\u2019s soccer World Cup along with Mexico and Canada.<\/p>\n
But the International Olympic Committee, where Infantino is a member, defended the FIFA boss. \u201cThe IOC has been in contact with FIFA,\u201d an IOC spokesman said. \u201cWe understand that FIFA is supporting, through football, a comprehensive sport recovery investment programme in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is entirely in keeping with the role of an International sport federation. The IOC, through Olympic Solidarity, which is our development vehicle, has been and continues to support sport development in the region,\u201d the spokesman said.<\/p>\n
The Olympic Charter states that members must always act independently of commercial and political interests. They also cannot accept \u201cfrom governments, organisations, or other parties, any mandate or instructions liable to interfere with the freedom of their action and vote,\u201d the Charter says<\/p>\n
Critics also said that tackling housing needs and restoration of basis services in the devastated enclave should be the priority not sport facilities.<\/p>\n
Infantino countered this criticism saying, \u201cWe don\u2019t have to just rebuild houses or schools or hospitals or roads. We also have to rebuild and build people, emotion, hope and trust. And this is what football, my sport, is about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geneva \u00a0 FIFA\u2019s decision to sign a partnership agreement with Trump\u2019s Board of Peace earlier this month has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-507955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}