Gianni Infantino met the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, before visiting football development projects during his first visit to the country as FIFA President. Accompanied by the Kazakhstan Football Federation (KFF) President Adilet Barmenkulov, Gianni Infantino took part in a ceremony for a girls’ schools football league. “It was an honour to meet and discuss football with Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Kazakhstan. He loves football, as do all the people of this beautiful country, and he is a great patron of our sport here,” said Gianni Infantino after his meeting with President Tokayev at Akorda, the official presidential residence. “Kazakhstan has become a very important country in world football, and for FIFA, it is a great partner. We discussed working together, because football offers great opportunities in supporting social integration, as well as uniting people from other countries.”

Mr Tokayev congratulated Gianni Infantino on his recent re-election as President of FIFA and thanked him for his contribution to the development of football worldwide, including Kazakhstan. “I think that your visit is very important in terms of football development in Kazakhstan,” Mr Tokayev said. “I know that you do a lot to develop football, which is the most popular and spectacular sport in the world. We appreciate your efforts and support you as President of FIFA. We intend to continue our good partnership with FIFA and with you personally. Today, there are 17 football centres and two academies in all regions of the country, where more than 7,000 children are trained.”

After watching the inauguration of a schools tournament at the Astana Arena, Mr Infantino then took part in the opening ceremony for the final stage of the National Girls School League and visited the KFF's Home of Football. He also watched a presentation about the new pitches at the KFF national training centre at Talgar, which have been built with the support of the FIFA Forward development programme.

“It is a country which loves football and I would like to congratulate the KFF President Adilet Barmenkulov and his entire team for the great work they are doing here to promote our sport,” the FIFA President said. “I was very happy to be present for the inauguration of a girls' school league – a tournament which I hope will encourage more kids to take up football here and imbibe values that the sport teaches. “It’s important that we, together with the federation, carry out these projects all over the country with our experts and with football people because we want the football culture to be in every village of Kazakhstan.”