“WE need you. We need you to be involved,” pleaded Fifa president Gianni Infantino in the latest ‘think tank’ session with the members of the Fifa Legends team yesterday ahead of today’s 67th Fifa Congress to be held at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre, Sanabis.
“The main focus has to be on football, and to achieve that we have to listen to the central characters, who are none other than you. We want to get you even more involved in everything that we do and to find out what you think about the decisions we want to take,” said Infantino to more than 20 elite players past and present from every Fifa confederation, as quoted on the official Fifa website.
Among other issues, the group discussed how to make the most of future meetings to achieve greater impact in countries where the game has yet to be developed.
“You get the sense that Fifa is listening to the people who’ve played football, which is crucial because we have a sharper vision of the game when it comes to new developments taking place around the sport,” said former Argentina international Pablo Aimar.
“It’s not just about development, but also the use of technology and the expansion of the World Cup, which is always good.”
Also present at the meeting were Fifa secretary general Fatma Samoura, Fifa Deputy secretary general Zvonimir Boban, Fifa chief officer for technical development Marco van Basten, Fifa Referees’ Committee chairman Pierluigi Collina and Massimo Busacca, the head of ifa’s Refereeing Department.
The session also saw a clear explanation of how video refereeing works and a discussion of the main challenges facing both the men’s and women’s games today.
“The opportunity to be listened to and to have our opinions taken into consideration alongside some of the greatest players in history is vital to strengthening the development and the image of the game.
“The way to do that is by meeting up and exchanging ideas,” said Alex Scott, who formed part of the England side that finished third at the Fifa Women’s World Cup in Canada in 2015.
In echoing that view, former Canada international Karina LeBlanc said: “Fifa invited us to make our views known a year ago and they’re backing that up.”
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