FIFA President Gianni Infantino congratulated new Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) President Keith Mapenzi Mweemba, on his recent election and praised the organisation’s proactive engagement with FIFA’s Football for Schools Programme when they met on the fringes of the FIFA Executive Football Summit 2025 in Miami, Florida. Mr Mweemba was among a number of FIFA Member Association (MA) representatives who attended the first of three summits Mr Infantino will lead during the inaugural, expanded FIFA Club World Cup 2025™. The FIFA President visited Zambia last June, where he met Mr Mweemba’s predecessor, Andrew Kamanga, paid tribute to the victims of the 1993 air disaster involving the Zambia national team and recommissioned a renovated accommodation centre for women and youth national teams. He is optimistic about the strides that FAZ can continue to make under Mr Mweemba.

“Zambia has great passion for football, which I saw during my visit there last year, and today's meeting in Miami with new Football Association of Zambia President Keith Mapenzi Mweemba was an opportunity for me to reaffirm FIFA's commitment to continue supporting football development,” Mr Infantino said. “We discussed how FIFA Forward funds can be used to strengthen football in beautiful Zambia and I thanked President Keith Mapenzi Mweemba for proactively interacting with the Football for Schools programme. I also passed my best wishes to the men's national team for the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifiers.” Zambia are just three points off the pace in CAF qualifying as they pursue a first-ever FIFA World Cup™ appearance, while they have qualified for both the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2025™ and FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2025™ – to be held in Qatar and Morocco respectively. FIFA’s Football for Schools was launched in Zambia in March 2024 and a further USD 3.45 million has been committed to the game’s development in the African nation with funding from FIFA Forward 3.0.

Mr Mweemba is enthusiastic about the future of the beautiful game in Zambia, and, indeed, beyond, with Mr Infantino as President of world football’s governing body. “It was very fruitful. You know, (he’s an) open-minded person,” he said of their meeting. “He gave me the platform to express myself and he has assured me of all the support. He can always count on my support too, from Zambia, because I think he’s doing a very good job [for] football. “FIFA Forward is a gamechanger. It is the lifeblood of football and I think, if well-handled, we’re on the right track. (The FIFA President) is introducing a lot of programmes for football development. And football is a big game – it unites the world. So I think I’m very happy. It was a really successful meeting with the President.”