International delegates to get a school children welcome
School children will give international delegates a unique and memorable welcome to Australia as part of the 58th FIFA Congress being held in Sydney this week.
Classes of primary school students have ‘adopted- a delegate from some of the 208 member nations attending the FIFA Congress and will personally welcome them to Sydney as part of a special program created by Football Federation Australia (FFA).
The classes were assigned a a country from each FIFA Confederation including Cyprus, Belgium, Tunisia, Cameroon, Korea, Argentina, Trinidad and Tobago, Russia and Qatar and have spent the past couple of weeks learning about their adopted delegate-s country and culture.
The children have created a personalised Welcome Kit for their delegate to tell them about Australia and compare their two countries.
FFA CEO Ben Buckley is delighted by the level of research, enthusiasm and effort the classes have put into the projects.
“The students and teachers have really embraced the idea and created some amazing Welcome Kits for the visiting FIFA delegates.
“It is a terrific example of how we can engage and learn from cultural diversity and how football is a shared passion right around the world that can bring people together.”
The Welcome Kits include letters from the children giving suggestions about what their adopted delegates might like to do in Sydney, profiles of themselves and what they are learning at school, drawings, posters, messages about why they would love Australia to host a future FIFA World Cup, recipes for iconic Australian foods such as lamingtons and meat pies, translations of Australian slang words and small mementos.
The school children will be special guests to the FIFA Congress at the Royal Hall of Industries at Moore Park at 8.00am on Friday 30 May to officially welcome the delegates.
“Football is played by millions of children around the world and by more young Australians than any other sport.
“We are delighted to have young Australians participating in this important FIFA event in Australia, “said FFA CEO Ben Buckley.