By David Gold
March 11 – FIFA has launched two women’s football projects in Azerbaijan, where the Under-17 Women’s World Cup takes place later this year.
The first project is a girls’ festival, featuring a series of seven events showing that football is more than just a sport, which began at the Dalga Arena in Baku this weekend.
The seven-part series will continue each month until the start of the Under-17 Women’s World Cup in September.
The second scheme, “Live Your Goal”, will also be hosted by Baku and will use female footballers as ambassadors to encourage young girls to follow their dreams through the sport.
Vera Pauw, FIFA instructor for women’s football, said: “The legacy programme of Azerbaijan is an excellent example of what football can mean for the development of girls.
“Football is so much more than just kicking a ball.
“You learn what you can do, to stand for yourself, to set goals in your life.”
At the Dalga Stadium were women’s football ambassador Steffi Jones and Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA) secretary general Elkhan Mammadov.
Jones and Pauw also organised a question and answer session following a snowstorm which disrupted the planned football activities.
Last week, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili announced that his country is going to bid to host the European Championships in 2020 alongside Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan is also bidding to host the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in the same year, in Baku.
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