FIFA President Gianni Infantino has met U.S. Virgin Islands Soccer Federation (USVISF) President Yohannes Worede and pledged continued support of the Caribbean nation’s commitment to grassroots football development. Mr Worede was among several FIFA Member Association (MA) representatives who met one-on-one with Mr Infantino in Miami, United States, after the first of three FIFA Executive Football Summits he will lead during the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™. Mr Infantino called the meeting “productive and positive”. "We were very privileged to have had this opportunity to meet with the FIFA President,” Mr Worede said. “I thought it was very casual. He was very open and it allowed me… to discuss some of the interests that I was seeking.” Chief among those interests is long-term development.

The USVISF joined FIFA and played its first senior international match in 1998. Football in the country of fewer than 100,000 people is still developing, making it fertile ground for the FIFA Forward programme. In 2019, FIFA Forward funds were used to construct the USVISF National Technical Centre in St Croix, which includes a pitch and stands that can accommodate 1,200 fans. It is now the home ground of the USVISF’s national teams. “I think now with all the support that we’ve been getting, both from Concacaf and from FIFA, we’re really finding a way to put our stuff on the right pathway for football growth,” Mr Worede, who was capped twice by the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2000, said. “The big accomplishments that we were able to highlight [in the meeting] was for the first time last year, we implemented a U-10 and U-13 league… and we also launched a women’s league, which had never been done either.” Mr Infantino said the full spectrum of football was covered in the meeting, from youth and the women’s game to the possibility of the U.S. Virgin Islands competing in the FIFA Series 2026™, which will feature high-profile friendlies during that year’s March international window.

“We also touched upon how we as FIFA can support the promising grassroots projects in the country through the FIFA Forward Programme and the continuation of the FIFA Football for Schools initiative,” Mr Infantino added. “We are proud and eager to support President Worede and his team's work to take football to every girl and boy in the U.S. Virgin Islands.” The USVISF President presented his FIFA counterpart with a colourful national team jersey and said he appreciated the fact that Mr Infantino shared his vision for growth. “We’re grateful that we’re in this organisation and we have an opportunity to use that money to try and help us develop for the long game,” Mr Worede said. “My endgame is to see that if you roll a ball to a kid from the (U.S.) Virgin Islands, they’ll be able to control the ball and pass it properly. So at least fundamentally, they’ll have that ability. And where they take it from there, that will be what the future holds."