Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister, held talks in Riyadh on Tuesday with FIFA President Gianni Infantino to review areas of sports cooperation with the organization and discuss promising opportunities for its development.
Saudi Minister of Sport Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki bin Faisal, Minister of Commerce Dr. Majid Al-Kassabi, Governor of the Public Investment Fund Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Advisor at the Royal Court Abdulaziz Tarabzouni, and President of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation Yasser Al-Misehal attended the meeting.
Infantino was in Riyadh to attend the ninth edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII).
Speaking at a panel discussion on the first day of the event, he said that “football is to remind everyone” that society must also “invest in happiness”.
He said that Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup was evidence of how the sport can bring together people from all over the world.
More than five billion people around the globe watched the event, he added.
The next World Cup will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico and is expected to attract 14 million fans to watch the matches at the stadiums, he remarked.
Saudi Arabia is set to host the 2034 edition of the tournament.
“Peace, unity, coming together, understanding each other, all these values that football brings to people, and starting with children when they start playing, it’s something that we need to uphold, and we need to absolutely bring forward all the time,” Infantino told FII.
“What we can do with football is to remind everyone that besides all the important things you are doing, investment in technology, investment in infrastructure, in schools, in hospitals, in roads, we need to invest, as well, in emotions. Invest in happiness. And that’s why we like to say that football unites the world. Because we need people to come together.”
