Gianni Infantino promised full support for plans to develop football infrastructure and increase participation in Guinea during a meeting with Bouba Sampil, President of the Guinean Football Association (FÉGUIFOOT), and the country’s Minster for Youth and Sports, Haba Keamou Bogola.

The meeting took place at the FIFA office in Paris, France, and followed Guinea’s first participation in the men's Olympic Football Tournament for 56 years. Gianni Infantino previously met Mr Sampil during the CAF Africa Cup of Nations in Côte d’Ivoire in January 2024, shortly after the latter was elected as the FÉGUIFOOT president.

“Guinea is a football-loving country with a lot of potential and we spoke about the impact of the FIFA Series on the men's national team, which has shown great progress, as was evidenced by their qualification for the Men's Olympic Football Tournament,” the FIFA President said. Guinea played Vanuatu and Bermuda in their FIFA Series™ matches in March 2024, which were staged in Saudi Arabia.

“President Sampil also updated me on their plans, following on from our meeting in January this year, and I assured him of FIFA's full support for his plans to develop infrastructure, which includes the construction of three new artificial pitches. We also spoke about ways to increase participation and identify and develop talent in his beautiful nation,” he said.

Mr Sampil said that Olympic qualification was a sign that football in Guinea was progressing. “We have initiated football development projects through FIFA. We’ve also started playing in the U-17 (CAF U-17 Africa Cup of Nations). We have created a Beach Soccer (team) and the women’s football league is up and running. So with all that in mind, we think we’re on the right track to develop football,” he said.

Mr Bogola said that the Guinean government was ready to provide land for football projects including the three artificial pitches which will be installed in Mamou, Faranah and Nzérékoré. “We thanked him (Gianni Infantino) for everything he is doing for our football. I told him about the government’s willingness to cooperate in offering the land so that the projects can be carried out,” he said.

FÉGUIFOOT has already used FIFA Forward support to launch a scouting campaign for teenagers. A total of 23,654 young footballers, including girls, took part in the preliminary phase and the best were selected to attend two academies in Nongo and Kindia, where they were expected to combine education with playing football.

“For us, football has a really important role to play in terms of youth engagement. We’ve always said that our youth have 24 hours in the day – eight hours of sleep, six hours of school so that leaves them ten hours, and we need to keep them engaged in that time. Football takes up at least three or four hours each day for them,” said Mr Bogola.

However, he added that this created its own challenges in terms of providing infrastructure, coaches and administration. Similarly, taking part in more national team competitions would require more expenditure and these were all areas where FIFA could help.

He said that Olympic qualification was only the start. “We’re more passionate than ever and the Guinean people have come out in their droves to support and I don’t think we’ll stop there,” he said.