FIFA President Gianni Infantino arrived in Israel today (Monday) as a guest of the Friedman Center for Powerful Peace.
This is Infantino's first visit to Israel as FIFA president and he was greeted at the airport by the chairman of the Football Association, Oren Hasson.
The two continued together at the team house in Shefayim, attended by a meeting of the association's general manager Yossi Sharabi, the deputy general manager Ronen Hershko, the technical director of the young teams Yila Hoss, the deputy technical director Bonnie Ginzburg and Guy Inbar, head of government relations at the association.
In an hour-long meeting, Infantino was presented with the Football Association's strategic plans and vision for the coming years to further develop the industry, focusing on infrastructure, increasing the number of participants, building additional academies and centers of excellence, coaching, youth development and women's football.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino: "I am happy to be in Israel and I had a wonderful conversation with Chairman Oren Hasson and the Israeli team, who presented to me the vision and strategy to take football here to the next level and bring the good news to every boy and girl. To reach "The top has to start from the ground up. The vision and strategy are already here, the hard work has already begun and it is an encouraging time for football in Israel."
Oren Hasson, chairman of the Football Association, summed up the visit and the meeting first by addressing the FIFA president: "Thank you for finding the time to come here and meet us. Built with the help of FIFA. I am happy about our conversation today, the focus on the ways in which football can be promoted here together and your commitment is definitely encouraging. FIFA has helped us quite a bit and I hope we enjoy helping with the various projects we talked about.
The President has promised us in the past that he will come here by the end of the year and he has kept his word.
I hope for more visits from him and the people of FIFA in favor of the continued development of Israeli football. "