The President of the Angolan Football Association (FAF) Artur Silva has visited Gianni Infantino at the FIFA office in Paris where they discussed how to best use the FIFA Forward programme to develop football in the country. The FIFA President took the opportunity to wish Angola the best of luck in the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2024™ where they will be making their second appearance following their debut in 2021.

“We talked about the best ways of using the FIFA Forward funding in Angola so that the country can develop talented players to fulfil its huge potential. We also discussed how football can positively impact education and society in general,” the FIFA President said. “I wished Angola the very best of luck at the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2024 in Uzbekistan and passed my best regards to the people of Angola who love football, as I saw for myself during a visit there a few years ago. “During this very productive meeting, I assured them of FIFA's support to grow football and make more opportunities available for the youth of this beautiful country.” Mr Silva stressed that the investment made in Angolan football through FIFA Forward is bringing significant benefits and this can also be seen with their positive ascent in the FIFA Men’s Ranking – as they are currently ranked 90th in the world, up 24 places in the past 12 months alone.

“In Angola, football has taken on a new dimension today,” the FAF President said. “In the last Africa Cup of Nations (the 2023 edition played in 2024) we participated in, we made great strides, reaching the quarter-finals. “This is happening in Angola because, thanks to FIFA Forward, we have seen a great evolution, both in terms of the staff involved in football, the performance level of our clubs and the level of performance of the national team. So, we are now reaping the rewards of all the work carried out over the last five or six years. As a result, football in Angola has grown significantly.” In other initiatives, earlier this month a club workshop was held in the Angolan capital Luanda as part of the FIFA Club Professionalisation and Management Programme Africa edition. These workshops aim to increase the strength of African clubs which will help give every talent a chance and to help make football truly global.