Egypt: Football to fight hunger in Cairo

Former European football stars including Italian striker Paolo Rossi and German forward Hans-Peter Mueller visited several projects run by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in the Egyptian capital, Cairo on Wednesday January 14.

The delegation visited projects aimed at teaching vulnerable women and children about animal raising, crop planting and pesticide-free farming and is the group’s first concrete initiative since the Association of European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) launched its anti-hunger fundraising campaign at FAO headquarters in October 2008.

Funds raised from the EPFL campaign will go to FAO’s Telefood campaign launched in 1997 to improve the livelihood of small-scale farmers and help them to produce more food and generate income.

Telefood’s annual campaign of broadcasts, concerts, sporting events and other activities involving media celebrities has generated over 25 million dollars in donations and has funded more than 2,700 projects in 134 countries.

Besides Rossi and Mueller, the delegation includes Portugal’s former star footballer Manuel Jose, the current coach of the Egyptian football club Al-Ahly and four-time champion of the African Champions League.

“One sixth of the world’s population is suffering from severe hunger or dramatically struggling to put food on the table. The need for action…real action has never been so urgent and so needed,” said EPFL Chief Executive Officer Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, one of the officials leading the delegation.

“That’s why we have joined FAO at the forefront of this fight. A fight for every individual’s right to food and human dignity,” Medeiros added.

The number of hungry people worldwide has soared to 963 million amid the global financial downturn, according to the FAO, whose Director-General, Jacques Diouf, lauded EPFL for putting its muscle behind the campaign.

“FAO appreciates the power of sport, and football in particular, to spread awareness and mobilize political will and financial resources in the fight against hunger, a fight that is more urgent than ever,” Diouf said.

The formation of the Professional Football Against Hunger marked an important milestone in the involvement of professional football in the global fight for a world free from hunger. It includes the 28 Member Leagues and Associate Members of EPFL, representing more than 960 professional football clubs across Europe.

Find out more: www.fao.org