As part of a long-standing partnership with FIFA, a delegation from the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has visited the Home of FIFA in Zürich, Switzerland. Led by the Council of Europe Deputy Secretary General Bjørn Berge, the delegation took part in constructive discussions with FIFA on a range of important topics on which the two sides have been co-operating since signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2018, including child safeguarding, safety and security at football matches and the fight against racism.

The delegation was welcomed by FIFA Chief Operations Office, Kevin Lamour, and FIFA Head of International Relations and Public Affairs Myriam Burkhard. FIFA Chief of Global Football Development, Arsène Wenger, gave a presentation on the FIFA Talent Development Scheme, entitled Give Every Talent a Chance, explaining how it helps Member Associations ensure that every talented young player is given a chance to fulfil their potential.

There were also presentations by FIFA Director Safety, Security & Access Helmut Spahn, FIFA Head of Human Rights & Anti-Discrimination, Gerd Dembowski and FIFA Head of Safeguarding & Child Protection, Marie-laure Lemineur.

Established in 1949, the Council of Europe is the continent’s oldest intergovernmental organisation and plays a crucial role in defending and promoting the rule of law and human rights across its 46 member states. The Committee of Ministers is the Council of Europe’s decision-making body. It is both a governmental body where national approaches to European problems are discussed on an equal footing and a forum to find collective responses to these challenges. FIFA has observer status to the committees of all three sport-related Council of Europe conventions: Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions, Convention on an Integrated Safety, Security and Service Approach at Football Matches (Saint-Denis) and the Anti-Doping Convention: Monitoring Group of the Anti-Doping Convention (T-DO.