00:04FIFA president Gianni Infantino said the FIFA Africa office would have a global impact on football during the ceremony to
00:12mark its official opening in the capital of Morocco, Rabat, in 2025.
00:20The FIFA Africa office joins similar FIFA hubs in Paris, Miami and Jakarta, but underpin FIFA's aim of building stronger
00:30local links to its 211 member associations around the world, with the goal of facilitating football's growth globally.
00:43Today is a day that unites us and brings us together, here in Rabat, in the Mohammed VI football complex.
00:53It's an incredible and beautiful complex, and I want to start by thanking Morocco.
01:00Thanking His Majesty King Mohammed VI, and of course the Federation, led by my brother Fouzi Lekjar, here in Morocco,
01:11to develop football and this unique facility.
01:16This place is a lot more than just a sporting centre, a lot more than an academy.
01:24It is the nerve centre of Moroccan and African football, and as of today, of world football.
01:37It is witness to a country that is looking into the future, to a continent that is looking into the
01:45future, and to the work that all of us do here for this incredible sport.
02:00It's a special day for FIFA, Africa is FIFA, the rest of the world is FIFA.
02:11And they couldn't have found a better place for FIFA headquarters to be here in a very special country for
02:21all of us.
02:22Let me start by expressing my deep personal gratitude, and I know I speak on behalf of the 54 African
02:31nations, express our gratitude to His Majesty King Mohammed VI.
02:37May God assist him, and a very special recognition and gratitude to the Royal Morocco Football Federation, to our brother
02:48Fouzi for the good work that he's doing, to all the vice presidents, the CAF vice presidents who are here.
02:57And also a special recognition to every single president from the 54 CAF member associations.
03:07It's a great honour to have you here, and our brother Matthias.
03:14And you see, I then leave our very special brother for dessert.
03:24Gianni is a very special friend of Africa, a very deep and committed and a loyal partner for Africa.
03:37Morocco is becoming an increasingly significant player in international football.
03:43The men's national team broke new ground in 2022 by becoming the first African nation to reach a World Cup
03:50semi-final.
03:51The following year, the women's team reached the knockout stages of the FIFA Women's World Cup for the first time.
03:58Moroccan administrator Fawzi Lekjar is the first vice president of CAF, a member of the FIFA Council, and chair of
04:06the committee in charge of the joint candidacy of Morocco, Spain, and Portugal for the organization of the 2030 World
04:13Cup.
04:17Fawzi Lekjar is a close aide of Morocco's King Mohamed VI, guiding his investment in football, leading to nation-building
04:24projects like the state-of-the-art Academy Mohamed Sis de Football in Saleh, which helped fine-tune the development
04:32of the likes of Nayef Agur and Yusuf and Nasiri.
04:39FIFA's presence in Rabat is a major signal to where the locus of power resides in African football.
04:50From this place, with this centre that brings together not only the administration, but also the sporting side,
05:00we will be able to organize many events in Morocco, who is also the host of the Under-17 Women's
05:07World Cup for the next five years,
05:10and that too will leave a mark not only on Morocco and Africa, but on the whole world.
05:17We are uniting the world here in Morocco, and from this moment on, of course, we will also organize the
05:262030 World Cup, the second World Cup in Africa, co-hosted by Morocco, Spain, and Portugal.
05:38It will be the centenary World Cup, an incredible celebration in 2030.
05:44And here, everything is in place to make sure this celebration is the most beautiful we've ever seen.
05:51But to do that, of course, we have to work.
05:55We all have to work together, and I know that you are part of our team.
06:04The 2030 World Cup will be Morocco's fourth in a row.
06:08A run that now seems unlikely to pick her tail as the regional powerhouses blossom into a football nation of
06:16global significance.
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