Legacy Fund Plan
Groundbreaking initiative
The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Legacy Fund (the “Legacy Fund”) is a partnership between FIFA and the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC), together with the active involvement of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), all of which specialise in the targeted impact areas of the Legacy Fund.
This groundbreaking initiative will for the first time ever encompass non-football, social programmes at the international level to help people most in need all across the world.
FIFA is taking the concept of a legacy fund to the next level in terms of reach and impact by tackling key priorities such as refugees, occupational health, education, and football development.
FIFA World Cup™ Legacy Fund established on unifying educational, cultural, humanitarian and sporting values in cooperation with UN agencies.
FIFA World Cup™ Legacy Fund to take a global approach with an international dimension that helps people most in need.
FIFA World Cup™ Legacy Fund to actively prioritise youth and women at all levels of society around the world.
We always recognised the power of the FIFA World Cup to impact positively within our country, the region, and around the world and that to harness its unrivalled potential we needed to approach the event as far more than 28 days of football.
million total investment in USD
Refugee Pillar with UNHCR
Sport can be a powerful channel of hope and empowerment for marginalised individuals and communities. This fund will take the World Cup legacy beyond stadiums and screens to millions displaced by war, conflict and persecution.
Initiatives aimed at providing multisectoral support for refugees and displaced persons coming from and in the Middle East and North Africa region. By partnering with UNHCR, the Legacy Fund will support programmes that empower communities and promote resilience and self-sufficiency for some of the world’s most vulnerable people with a view to achieving the following objectives:
Enhanced access to basic services, including education, healthcare and protection;
Increased livelihood opportunities, including economic empowerment through vocational training and job creation;
Improved social inclusion and community stability through sport; and
Strengthened national systems integrating displaced populations into national frameworks for lasting impact
There will be a particular focus on access to humanitarian assistance and football-related programmes that facilitate social integration for children and young people who have suffered the consequences of fleeing from their homes.
The refugee pillar of the Legacy Fund will complement the significant investment and support already being delivered by Qatar to protect and safeguard the rights of refugees and, where appropriate, specific initiatives under this pillar will be integrated into and complement existing programmes run by relevant third parties and organisations.
Find out more about what the UNHCR are doing here.
Education Pillar with the WTO
The education pillar will seek to leverage on the unique power of football and sport to improve lives in the Middle East and North Africa region and beyond. The projects will focus on (while not limited to), equal access to education and on harnessing the power of quality education for positive, sustainable and inclusive change. It will extend to human training and development that is aimed at utilising football as the central tool to engage young people, particularly girls and women, and focuses on enriching their lives through education.
This ground-breaking collaboration will help scale up capacity for women entrepreneurs seeking to use digital tools and platforms to access new opportunities and global value chains.
In cooperation with the WTO and the International Trade Centre, FIFA will support the Women Exporters in the Digital Economy (WEIDE) Fund, which aims to economically empower women entrepreneurs by leveraging the potential of digitalisation to help them access global value chains. The Fund aims to educate women on a range of matters including marketing, online sales, trade and export rules, trade finance and financial management. In line with FIFA’s objectives, one of the core outcomes of the Fund is also job creation and ensuring that the involved companies create even more jobs for people by the end of the programme. At least 10% of the women-led Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) targeted in beneficiary countries will be working in the global football value chain. The Fund will work with FIFA to increase awareness and information on market opportunities for these MSMEs.
Find out more about what the WTO are doing here.
Occupational Health Pillar with the WHO
Occupational health-based initiatives that will build on the role played by the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 as a catalyst to help advance the public health and occupational health and safety across the world.
In order to continue this legacy and to ensure that best practices are shared and promoted, investment will initially lay with the World Health Organization to support Beat the Heat, a flagship initiative to mount action to safeguard health and safety in environments threatened by rising temperatures and the related occupational and environmental hazards and impacts in the context of climate change.
The worlds of sport and health must collaborate to create safe, clean and healthy environments for all people engaged in the preparation, delivery and legacy of mega sport events, including workers, athletes, spectators, and communities.
FIFA will join forces with the WHO to support Beat the Heat, a flagship initiative to mount action to safeguard the health and safety of high-risk individuals from extreme heat and the related occupational and environmental hazards and impacts in the context of climate change. Beat the Heat aims to:
Leverage the practical implementation of international recommendations from WHO, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Meteorological Organization for safeguarding workers and the public from extreme heat, air pollution, and UV radiation in target settings.
Strengthen the capacities of health systems to provide and protect health from heat and other environmental hazards in high-risk workplaces, sports events, and mass gatherings.
Raise awareness about heat and related health risks and mitigation strategies, build commitment for action, and empower governments, healthcare services, businesses, and event organizers to enhance the health and safety of workers and attendees.
Advocate for robust policies, regulations, monitoring, and enforcement to ensure long-term social and environmental sustainability and effectiveness in protecting workers and attendees.
Find out more about what the WHO are doing here.
Footballing Pillar with Aspire
The fourth pillar will feature a direct and dedicated knowledge exchange at technical development level between FIFA and counterparts in the host country of Qatar. Aspire Academy and the FIFA Talent Development Scheme led by Arsène Wenger will collaborate in identifying promising young talents in remote areas in a dedicated number of developing countries, with the objective of giving more talent around the world a chance to shine. This will plug into existing programmes run by both organisations who will cover the cost and provide the expertise necessary over the course of the collaboration. Both sides will benefit from each other’s extensive network and the depth of talent identification and development resources that are globally active, generating synergies and unlocking new opportunities for mutual benefit and that of football development generally.
Implementation & supervision
The Legacy Fund has been approved and endorsed by the FIFA Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee and the FIFA Council.
FIFA and the SC will steer the implementation of the Legacy Fund project in close cooperation with the relevant UN agencies. In relation to each of the three social pillars, connections will be forged across the NGO global network, with the potential involvement of confederations and member associations.
The footballing pillar will feature the joint involvement and collaboration of the FIFA Global Football Development Division and Aspire Academy.
As with previous FIFA World Cup Legacy Funds, a contract of agreed objectives will be drawn up between FIFA and the SC.
The details of programme funding, including tranches and milestones, as well as reporting responsibilities and other conditions, will be set out within the contract of agreed objectives, which will be subject to approval by the FIFA Development Committee.
Every year, independent auditors will be appointed by FIFA to audit and report on the use of funds for every year in which the Legacy Fund is operating. The results of these audits will be reported to the Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee together with all other central audits performed by these independent auditors each year across each continent around the world.