On 13 November, FIFA President Gianni Infantino visited Tbilisi together with other high-ranking members of the organisation, including former French international Youri Djorkaeff, Federico Raviglione, Elkhan Mammadov and Marco Ferri.
During the visit, the head of the world football’s governing body familiarised himself with different infrastructure projects, including the new GFF football centre in Dighomi, which is currently being built with the support of the FIFA Forward programme. The guests visited the construction site together with GFF President Levan Kobiashvili, General Secretary David Mujiri, First Vice President Kakha Chumburidze, and Vice Presidents Alexander Iashvili and Akaki Aladashvili.
Speaking at Mikheil Meskhi Stadium, Gianni Infantino highlighted the importance of the projects successfully implemented by GFF in recent years, and addressed Georgia’s prospects of hosting the FIFA U-20 World Cup. Georgia and Armenia have submitted a joint bid to host the event.
During his visit, Mr. Infantino also met the Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze and the Mayor of Tbilisi Kakha Kaladze. Issues discussed during the meeting included the measures undertaken by the Georgian government to support football, as well as future plans such as the construction of a new 70,000-seater stadium.
The FIFA President visited the grave of David Petriashvili and honoured his memory. Mr. Petriashvili worked at GFF for 12 years and held the position of HatTrick Programme Manager at UEFA during the final years of his life.
Gianni Infantino arrived in Tbilisi early this morning, and is due to leave later tonight.
“First of all, I would like to congratulate my friend Levan and the whole team of the Georgian Football Federation on doing an incredible job.
The FIFA Forward programme supports all countries in the world, but some are investing the money in a better way than others, as we can see from this example, as well as from other projects implemented both in Tbilisi and across the country. The current cycle of the programme alone has included three projects. This allows children to play the game, which ultimately translates into the kind of success that Georgian football has had in recent past, and will continue to have in the future.
The whole country can see the work that GFF is doing, and how the money is being invested not only in the professional game, but also in grassroots and amateur football. Every child growing up in this area will see these pitches and will want to play football.
This is a great example not only for Georgia and the region, but also for the entire world. I plan to bring many visitors here to show them what can be done.
Football is clearly the number one sport in Georgia. By hosting UEFA youth competitions, Georgia has already shown that it can stage such events, get the public to respond, fill the stadiums, and use the infrastructure. It will be interesting to have Georgia host the U-20 World Cup, perhaps together with a neighbouring country. We must look into that. It would give an additional boost to Georgia and the Georgian football.” – Gianni Infantino
