FIFA President, Gianni Infantino attended the inauguration of the Hôtel de la Marine in Paris, together with French President Emmanuel Macron and French Football Association (FFF) President Noël Le Graët, where FIFA intends to open a new office. This renovated historical building is located in the centre of the French capital, where FIFA was founded in 1904.

The launch of this new office is in line with FIFA’s vision to make football truly global and to strengthen cooperation with key international institutions. The Paris office will be a strategic base for football development activities, with a view to further consolidating relations with its members. It will work in close coordination with the 11 existing FIFA Regional Development Offices across the world, as well as with FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.

The announcement comes following fruitful discussions with President Macron and French public authorities, with the ongoing support of Business France.

Speaking at the event, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said: “Our aim of making football truly global also means that FIFA itself needs to have a more balanced and global organisational set up. Paris is a natural home for FIFA, not least since it was the original home of FIFA from 1904 to 1932. It is one of the great and truly global cities of the world, well connected and easily accessible.

“France is the home of the current men’s FIFA World Cup champions, and recently hosted a truly fantastic FIFA Women’s World Cup as well. France’s track record in football development is also second to none, and it is therefore also natural that much of the work of our Paris office will focus on football development activities. We are very optimistic that we can achieve great things in Paris and are very grateful to President Macron and his whole team for the way in which they have worked together with FIFA in order to find us the perfect location to (re)launch our Paris operations.”

FIFA’s new office will be located in a co-working space at the Hôtel de la Marine, managed by Morning, a French workspaces company, which will allow FIFA staff to benefit from its expertise and services.

Following the inauguration, the FIFA President accompanied the French President and the FFF President to the French National Football Centre in Clairefontaine for a short visit with the French men’s national team.

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The surge in cases comes ahead of a government crisis meeting Wednesday, with officials hoping to avoid a new lockdown for the capital as the fast-spreading “British” variant of the coronavirus hits France.

A nationwide curfew of 6 pm is in place, and weekend shutdowns have been ordered for the northern Pas-de-Calais region, where transfers of Covid patients to less crowded hospitals began last week, and in the Mediterranean region surrounding Nice.

In Paris and its suburbs, 1,018 intensive care unit beds are filled of the 1,050 set aside for Covid patients, the ARS regional health authority said.

It is the first time the number has exceeded 1,000 since November 18, when France was still under the second nationwide lockdown since the crisis erupted last February.

Officials will now postpone 40 percent of non-urgent operations in order to have a total of 1,577 beds available for Covid cases soon, the agency said.

“I’m not saying we need a lockdown but we need to be aware of the consequences of the current strategy: We’re saturated, the numbers keep climbing and we’re sending patients elsewhere as much as we can,” Stephane Gaudry, an intensive care doctor at the Avicenne hospital north of Paris, told AFP.

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Men’s Ballon d’Or

1. Lionel Messi (ARG/Barcelona)
2. Virgil van Dijk (NED/Liverpool)
3. Cristiano Ronaldo (POR/Juventus)
4. Sadio Mane (SEN/Liverpool)
5. Mohamed Salah (EGY/Liverpool)
6. Kylian Mbappe (FRA/PSG)
7. Alisson Becker (BRA/Liverpool)
8. Robert Lewandowski (POL/Bayern Munich)
9. Bernardo Silva (POR/Manchester City)
10. Riyad Mahrez (ALG/Manchester City)

Women’s Ballon d’Or

1. Megan Rapinoe (USA/Reign FC)
2. Lucy Bronze (ENG/Lyon)
3. Alex Morgan (USA/Orlando Pride)
4. Ada Hegerberg (NOR/Lyon)
5. Viviane Miedema (NED/Arsenal)
6. Wendie Renard (FRA/Lyon)
7. Sam Kerr (AUS/Chicago Red Stars)
8. Rose Lavelle (USA/Washington Spirit)
9. Ellen White (ENG/Manchester City)
10. Dzsenifer Marozsan (GER/Lyon)

Kopa Trophy

(Best player under 21 on December 31)

1. Matthijs de Ligt (NED/Ajax Amsterdam then Juventus)
2. Jadon Sancho (ENG/Borussia Dortmund)
3. Joao Felix (POR/Benfica then Atletico Madrid)

Yashin Trophy

(Best goalkeeper, presented for the first time)

1. Alisson Becker (BRA/Liverpool)
2. Marc-Andre ter Stegen (GER/FC Barcelona)
3. Ederson (BRA/Manchester City)

AFP

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