19 Jul 2006

FIFA supporting French Polynesia Youth Festival

9:50 am on 19 July 2006

The World governing soccer body FIFA is one of the big sponsors at the Youth Festival currently being held in Tahiti

Over 1400 young people from around the Oceania region are attending the week long conference in the capital Papaetee.

The President of the Oceania Football Confederation, and a member of the FIFA executive committee, Reynard Temarii says they got involved with the festival for specific reasons.

"I think the football is a good way to inform people all over the world especially in Oceania, because when I make my audit I discovered that within the 11 countries who are members of the Oceania Football Confederation, we have 11-point-two million people who live in those countries, and 17-percent of them play football."

And Temarii says they're hoping to secure 105 million US dollars for the development of football in the Oceania region.